


Amnesiac

by KoniaxHyasen (Numinous_Scribe)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Edited WIP, Gen, I just don't know when, creative liberties have been taken and will be used religiously, i'll definitely experiment around on that tho, not a rebirth fic either, not an SI fic, slow burn plot, there'll eventually be a pairing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-08-21 00:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16566293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numinous_Scribe/pseuds/KoniaxHyasen
Summary: Papa says that when a person drowns, they dream. I dreamed and touched something not of this world. Now I live with a confusion of memories that may or may not be mine, but I can't remember clearly. I recognize people I've never met, and I also know bits and pieces of their fate. Something tells me that I've been given an opportunity to change them, so I will, even if it kills me.Unfortunately, I think the universe has taken me up on that challenge.





	1. My Name

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started this work about two years ago, got so far into it before I decided I needed to re-write the whole thing, and have slowly been editing ever since. I'll be adding in all the chapters I have updated onto here, and then, when everything is all caught up, I'll do a mass update on ff.net and begin trying to cross-post somewhat regularly.
> 
> A few things to note since this came up A LOT in the other comments on this story and I just cannot stress this enough, but:  
> -This is NOT an SI/Rebirth fic!  
> -The plot is a little bit on the slow side, but will gradually pick up pace.  
> -I've taken a few creative liberties regarding the timeline/canon ages and personalities. (This was partly because I suck at math and didn't realize what I'd done until it was too late.) In this fic, Kakashi acts a bit more like the kid he is and is a more vocal asshole because of it. If you don't like that, then this ISN'T the fic for you. 
> 
> Aside from all that >:3c Welcome to Amnesiac

_“No, mom I don’t want to meet anyone okay! Stop trying to set me up with some guy that’s your co-worker’s son. No― No I really do not care if he’s a nice young man with a lot of similar interests as me, you say that about every single guy. I don’t want a relationship right now, it’s not a priority to me. I’m only 23. I’m not going to die without getting married.”_

My vision is hazy.

_“Mom, just drop the matter okay? Please you are literally making the task of driving more difficult than necessary. What? Yes I’m talking to you while driving. No the phone is not in my hand, I have you on speaker right now.”_

Is this a dream?

_“I’m on my way, going through the gorge right now. Yes I’m being careful around the bends. Have a little faith in my driving abilities please.”_

I can’t tell.

_“Mom I can not understand what you’re saying, the connection is starting to break up. Mom? Ok good you’re still there, I’m still here, we’re doing just great.”_

This is surreal.

_“I should be over in time for dinner. Tell ‘K’ to not eat all the– OH MY GOD!”_

There’s something in the road, shrouded in a fog. I, she, we― run off the road to avoid it. The turn was too sharp though.

_“Ah! No shit, shit, shit!―”_

**_Loss of Service, loss of service, loss of service, loss of―_ **

_“Mom?_

_“Mom? Oh g-god I’m bleeding… so close to the edge, Mom? Mom?!”_

Black. Bla _ck, black, black, black_ . No more haze just nothing but the color that is no color. And then there’s the water. It’s all around. Churning, gurgling, dragging, stealing the air. A scream. A cry for help. Choking, burning lungs, and the endless black sight spanning for what feels like eons in a second. Eon _s in a second... Eons in a second..._

A strong arm, a tug, the blinding illumination of something that isn’t black. Compression, ringing, crying. Dying. Dy _ing, dying, dying, dying._ Light, pain, more choking, more crying. A familiarly unfamiliar face, two– no three. Gasping. A hug, the feeling of water running down my skin, soggy clothes clinging to me like a leaden weight. And a single word repeating over and over again. A single word. A noun. My name. My name is―

* * *

 

“Ame, what is it honey? You’re just staring at the water.” A woman tentatively placed a hand on the little girl’s shoulder. She didn’t blink or move, simply remaining where she was, calmly invested in the motionless water sitting in the small bowl.

“I’m trying to remember Mama.” Her voice was high pitched, childish. She didn’t remember her voice always sounding like that. She could have sworn once that it was a bit deeper, somewhat rougher and more challenging in personality, mature. Was that just a dream she had had? Papa said that when people drown they dream. It must have been a dream.

But it had felt real.

“What are you trying to remember honey?” Mama sat down next to her, pulling the child into her lap. She bobbed a little as she settled down more. Her mother’s thin hands that she had come to find were pale, and not a golden color like she always thought they were, started to run through her long, dark hair. Ame found her hair strange. It was long, very long, almost to her waist long. She thought that was because she didn’t like the short hairstyle that all the girls in her family liked, but couldn’t be certain about it if she were being truthful. It was also brown, but so dark that it almost resembled the black far shores themselves.

Mama continued to comb that hair with her fingers, maybe braiding some of it, without noticing the extent of how deep her daughter’s thoughts ran.

“I’m trying to remember…,” It was on the tip of her tongue. She knew what it was that she wanted to remember, but she couldn’t get the words to properly come out of her mouth.

“Go on baby, what are you trying to remember?” Mama started to make the braids bigger, weaving many of them together at once. The water remained still and Ame stared intently at it, thinking. She wondered if moving it, dispelling the tranquil appearance on the glassen surface, would allow her to say what she meant. She leaned forward and touched the surface with hands tinier than she recalled, but have already become accustomed to.

Tiny ripples shimmered underneath and away from her pointer finger.

“I’m trying to remember my name.”

Mama stopped braiding her hair. She looked up then, confused. “Mama?”

Her eyes, pretty doe eyes with deep chocolate colors swirling around and around, filled with tears. A frown tugged at her little lips. She didn’t like to see Mama cry. Mama was too sweet for tears. If a porcelain doll cried did it ruin their face? She thought that Mama was like a porcelain doll with her looks, but had Mama always been a porcelain doll? She couldn’t be sure anymore.

“Oh honey,” Mama whispered sadly, cupping Ame’s cheeks delicately between her hands. She pressed her forehead against her daughter’s and weeped.

“Ame! Come away from the edge sweetheart.” Papa’s large hand wrapped around Ame’s and tugged her away from the railing of the stone bridge they were crossing. Underneath it ran a stream that flows at a gentle trickle. Ame wondered if Papa was still afraid of her being around running water. She should probably have been afraid of it too, but she wasn’t. The water was keeping something from her, she just knew it.

“Ame, tell me about yourself again, please?” Papa was acting strange again. Just like Mama. He often asked her to tell him about herself, and made little odd comments here and there about various things she said. She suspected he told Mama and made her worry even more. Ame couldn’t stand it, but the truth was, she didn’t know what she was saying wrong.

“My name is _Ameida_ and I’m six twenty-three. I am a member of the Hiroshi clan and we can do this thing called shape shifting right Papa?” Ame looked up at Papa and cocked her head at the sight of his perplexed expression. He nodded, but she knew that those weren’t the correct words she was supposed to have used. But for the life of her she couldn’t seem to remember _what_ their technique was called!

Just looking at Papa was enough to distract her from the original task, though. He had pale skin too, like Mama. And his hair was the same dark shade as her own. She could have sworn though that  he had honey and sand colors in his hair. And his eyes were like Aspen bark, even warping slightly as bark did, with different hues of grey-beige colors. Not blue like the early evening. The two different images she had of her father were clashing and she squinted at him as if that would help keep them separate.

Papa cleared his throat. “Ame?”

Ame blinked, shook away the pictures of her Papa from her head, and continued with her story. “We’re supposed to be spies, especially because of the war. I like reading, and I help other kids read too. I’ve got a bitty brother named Kalani. Mama named him after a Hawaiian word that means ‘The Heaven Sky’ I think. And a cousin named Rikuro. He plays with me all the time, even if he can be a little mean sometimes.”

“Where did you say that Mama and I came from?”

She tilted her head back to look at the sky. The clouds were out today. All nice and puffy like little cotton balls, moving gently in the wind as if they were riding on sea swells. It was a nice day. The sun was even shining down to warm her up, even right down to her little toes.

“Mama came from the Hawaii Islands and you came from Germany. But somewhere along the lines you both decided to come live here!” She giggled and threw her hands up in the air. Papa sighed.

She didn’t think he liked her answer again.

* * *

 

“Papa, where are we going?” She didn’t really mind going somewhere that day. Going anywhere with Papa was an adventure all on its own. He carried her on his shoulders all the time and ran around. Ame quite liked feeling the wind stream through her hair. It made her feel like a spirit with the way her hair flew behind her.

“Remember where Papa said he goes to get jobs?” he asked, reminding her that she had asked him a question first. She chirped in response and he kept talking. “I have a friend there that I want you to meet. He might be able to help you with your memory.”

Papa and Mama said there’s something wrong with her memory. They said she told them things that they’ve never heard of before. Things that didn’t exist here. They said that she didn’t have a little brother, that there were no such places like Germany and Hawaii. It confused her, just like how Papa and Mama’s colors did. But the fact that she still remembered things about herself confused them. She was a jumbled mess of herself in herself.

Papa took a shortcut through the trees. Well, she called it a shortcut, but any detour was a shortcut in her mind, even though it still took them awhile before to hit what must have been the main road. And before long she spotted a giant fortress (really it was just a rather large gate but it was fun to imagine it was something else) looming on the road ahead.

“Welcome to Konohagakure, Ame,” Papa said smugly. She leaned forward in excitement. They wave to some men guarding the gates and headed deeper into the village. Some people shouted out Papa’s name, which was Kouhei, and waved hello to him. Ame rested her chin on his head, soaking in the warm rays of the sun, and the sweet scent of his hair.

They rounded a bend and passed a school. Perking up a bit, Ame stretched to see if she could spot any other kids. There were a bunch of them out in the courtyard. Some looked like they were playing, others looked like they were busy training. She briefly wondered if, when we’re done talking with Papa’s friend, she could go play with them? She didn’t get to play with many people, less so that were her age, and Rikuro was big enough that he had to go do training.

The school disappeared and Papa stopped in front of a flower shop. Vibrant colors bloomed from the inside out, filling up most of the space. Different aromas wafted around and made the area feel alive with refreshing scents. Ame breathed in deeply and settled back down into her lazy slouch against Papa. The sign above the store read: YAMANAKA.

“My friend Inoichi runs this shop, but he’s also very skilled with things concerning the mind,” Papa said. He lowered himself closer to the ground and Ame slid off of his shoulders. He took her hand and walked side by side with her into the shop. She happily sniffed in the scent of the flowers and grinned. They smelled like they had just been watered, creating a lovely aroma of floral in the rain.

A voice, a man, called from the back to say that he would be out in just a minute.

Her hand slipped out of Papa’s and she skipped around to look at some of the flowers. While she examined the flora, the man from the back shuffled out and greeted Papa warmly. For a little bit they talked in low whispers, no doubt about her. Ame didn’t really like it when the adults did that. Or kids. Well, anyone she supposed. It was kind of rude in her opinion.

After a while Papa’s friend walked over to her and knelt down to make himself level with her. She, in turn, shifted to look at him, a man with long platinum gold hair and clear blue eyes. His appearance struck her as familiar, but she knew that she had never met this man until today. Maybe Papa’s descriptions were just that good?

“Hello Ame. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” His voice was soft, like he thought he would frighten her away if he talked too loudly. Normally she didn’t mind when adults did this to her, but for some reason a part of her bristled at the way he spoke. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, so she tried to ignore it and nodded her head.

“Your father tells me that you have problems remembering some things. What kind of things?”

Ame bit her lip. If she told him her story then he was going to be worried like Mama and Papa. She didn’t like the looks of worried people. It made it seem like she was crazy. Of course being crazy wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but some kinds of crazy weren’t necessarily good either. She may not have been that old, but she could the difference between something good and bad. She knew though that if didn’t tell him then Papa and Mama wouldn’t ever stop worrying about her, and she hated making them worry.

“It’s hard to remember my name sometimes,” she shrugged, almost as if she were trying to pass it off as no big deal. “And I can’t remember some things before my, um, accident. And sometimes I remember things that aren’t mine.”

That last little bit slipped out without her meaning for it to. Inoichi’s head tilted to the left in slight concern.

“What do you mean you remember things that aren’t yours?”

She started to fidget, looking down at her feet and finding the ground more interesting than Inoichi’s clear gaze. It wasn’t exactly that she thought they weren’t her memories, since some things just seemed so _vivid_ in her mind, but there were a lot of things that contradicted each other as well. “I remember a little brother, and lands that don’t exist, and…”

Falling down much farther than from a stone into a river.

Her chest started to hurt, suddenly. It was like she was back in the water, the air being stolen from her greedy lungs. She was trapped.

Inoichi sensed that something was bothering her, so he quickly changed subjects and explained that what he was going to do next was just taking a peek into her mind just so he could see what might be going on. He wouldn’t do anything else, he promised. His hands flew rapidly as he made difficult looking hand gestures before pressing his thumb against her forehead. Ame stared blankly at him, watching his expression change from blank neutrality, to confusion, to perturbed in a matter of moments. When he was finished he pulled away and moved back over to Papa.

She suddenly didn’t wanna be there anymore.

“Papa, can I go over to the school and see if someone will play?” she asked, approaching her father hesitantly. She wasn’t sure he heard her, but he nodded his head so she took the opportunity to skip out of the flower shop and down the road. At the school yard gate Ame stood and looked around for someone to play with.

She saw a group of three standing nearby a tree. Two boys appeared to be arguing with each other while a girl frantically mediated between them. Altogether they didn’t appear to be much older than her by a couple of years, like Rikuro. One of the boys had white, spiky hair; a green scarf was wrapped snugly around his neck, although it was a little warm for that kind of clothing. The other one had soft looking black hair and a pair of orange goggles resting on his head. He pointed angrily at the white haired boy and it clicked in her mind that she had seen this boy before. It was a nostalgic feeling, like she knew much, much more about him than her own mind was letting on.

A wave of happiness crashed through her and she grin. Before Ame knew what she was doing, she had lifted up her kimono and ran towards the trio, jumping into the air to tackle the black haired boy to the ground. Her chest started to vibrate and she _purred_. The only thing on her mind was that he was alive and happy.

But… who was he exactly?

“Oi! G-get off of me!” The boy wiggled around and she clung to his shirt while he stood. Ame was still small enough that it meant she’d be very light, even for someone not much older than herself. The boy spun around wildly trying to find her, only to make himself dizzy in the process. Finally the white haired boy, having had enough of this, grabbed the back of her kimono and pulled hard enough that she came off, setting her back on the ground. But he kept his hand close in case he had to do it again.

“Um, are you lost little girl?” The girl, with her pretty short hair and purple striped cheeks, bent over and smiled kindly. Ame shook her head, her cute little grin still intact.

“Nope! I just wanna play!” She threw her hands up in the air and twirled around enthusiastically. Ame was certain that she had gotten them confused, but it was alright.

The white haired boy huffed. “If you’re not attending the academy then you shouldn’t be here.”

“Oh don’t be such a stiff _Bakashi_. She’s just a little kid. If she wants to play then just let her.” The boy with black hair crouched and gave Ame a lopsided grin. “My name’s Obito, Uchiha Obito. The jerk over there is Hatake Kakashi.”

The white haired boy muttered something about being able to introduce himself on his own before turning away to promptly ignore the conversation. Ame narrowed her eyes, instantly knowing she wasn’t going to like this kid. The boy named Obito had it right when he had called this one a jerk.

“And I’m Nohara Rin,” The girl, Rin, knelt down as well. “What’s your name?”

She was about to answer when she felt a strange clicking sensation in the back of her mind. Their names… _she knew them_ _too_. A flash, and she was seeing things she had never seen before. The three of them were a little older than they were now, about graduation age for academy students if she had to guess. They went on all kinds of missions together, become friends of sorts, and grew up together just a little. They were a unique group of individuals capable of different things. Their strengths and weaknesses were what made them work well together, and that was what made them possible to be an ultimate team. They were like a pack.

“You guys are going to be a genin team,” Ame said with eyes opened wide in awe. Rin blinked in surprise and backed away slightly. Obito began to question and protest, confusion getting the best of him. And Kakashi silently judged like always. _Like always?_ What did that even mean?

A deep sigh escaped her, and with it that dreadful feeling of water filling her chest came back. It was quick and and demanding, overtaking her entire being. Ame teetered and turned around. She didn’t know what was happening, and that scared her. She needed to get back to Papa so he could fix this!

How could one drown on land with no water in sight? It simply wasn’t possible was is it? Yet that was exactly what Ame felt happening inside of her. Like when she had fallen into the river behind the family estate, down that terrifying height. All that murky dark taking her sight. _Eons in a second…_ Ame thought she heard those kids calling to her, but she couldn’t tell. Hearing was like listening to half the words reach her through a wall of water. _She couldn’t breathe_.

Her foot slipped beneath her and she fell onto the dirt. Ame curled in on herself and wished for everything to go away. She didn’t like this. It was too scary! _Papa! Papa!_

“Ame!”

She opened her eyes in a flash and became engulfed in the blinding sunlight. Papa wavered in her vision. Large, strong hands turned Ame on her side and pounded against her back, stinging it harshly. The obstruction she felt in her lungs, the water, it rushed out and she cough it up. Someone gasped in shock. Her head hung limp as she heaved, water leaving at the same time air was coming in, causing her to choke. There just didn’t seem to be enough air. There never was.

“Kouhei, I’ll do whatever it is you need me to.” Inoichi, he must have followed Papa, said with a hint of distress. She never caught what her Papa had said, falling into a more peaceful darkness that wrapped a blanket around her, telling her to sleep.

Ame didn’t question it, and did as it commanded.


	2. The Hiroshi Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's play 'Spot the References'

“Ame, tell me about yourself please.” Papa led the way down towards their garden, Ame skipping at his side happily. He had said that they were going to start something special that day. She hoped it was training, then she could do things like Rikuro did. He was already allowed to be taken out on missions, even though they were only really small ones. Ame wanted to go out into the world too, not just on trips to Konoha.

She groaned, but a look from Papa silenced it.

“My name is Hiroshi Ame and I’m seven years old. Our clan specialty is _Henzuru,_ a kekkei genkai, and we are a spy-nin clan. I like reading, listening to others’ conversations, and playing brain games. And… and... _a-a-achoo!_ ”

The little girl rubbed her nose, feeling a peculiar new weight sprout on top of her head. ‘ _Aw man_ ,’ she thought in mild annoyance, ‘ _it happened again_.’

She reached up and felt soft, velvet like fur from her pair of new ears. They flicked slightly, picking up different sounds she normally wouldn’t have been able to hear. Papa’s voice was a little more defined, and Ame could hear his breath vibrating in his chest while he spoke and laughed. It sounded like a lion purring.

“And here we see our legacy in action, that which lets you take your transformations further than just the human level. Our kekkei genkai is both a blessing and a curse to us, so use it well, little kitten.” Ame scowled at the nickname her father tagged at the end of his little lesson. She didn’t particularly like being called ‘ _little_ ’ anything. She may have been short, due to the genetics that were passed down on the women’s half of the clan (thus making her growing process a slow business), but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be big in other ways.

Papa stopped in the center of the garden and sat down, crossing his legs and gesturing for her to do the same, but across from him. Ame settled down and closed her eyes upon Papa’s instruction. A gentle breeze picked up and ran through her hair. She still loved the feeling, even more so as it brushed through the small ears upon her head. The sun shined down warmly, keeping everything brightly lit even with her eyes shut. The aroma of nature swirled in a complex dance: sweet, crisp, watered, heated. The sounds were relaxing, perfect for meditation.

Papa started to speak again. “As you already know, _Henzuru_ is merely to be transfigured. We can alter our shapes to look different, like anyone we wish to be. It makes us dangerous because of it. Our clan is put on a short leash and made to only serve one village as a whole, or not at all. As the head of the clan I’ve chosen to continue allying ourselves with Konohagakure. I believe that it is in the best of our interests for us to do so. Hopefully it will remain that way for a long, long time.”

Ame nodded. Being a spy-nin in general was dangerous. They had to choose their allegiances carefully or else pay the consequences. And as a clan of spy-nin, they had to all be on the same page. If they were all serving different villages then it created rivalries and distrust amongst themselves as well as among the villages. And when that happened, especially if it was during a time of war like they were in now, then the death toll would rise.

“But enough of the political side to our abilities. Today I’m going to teach you how chakra works with Henzuru.”

Ame peeked and saw a hint of excitement in Papa’s eyes. He had always been a teacher at heart, in her opinion.

“First I want you to focus on yourself. Keep your eyes closed and listen to what’s _inside_.”

Taking a slow, deep breath she did as he said and shut her eyes. Papa fell silent and let her focus. Gradually, Ame tuned out the sounds around herself. The chirping of little birds faded, the cicadas disappeared, even the gentle lilting of the breeze died away. It was replaced with different sounds; sounds from the inside. The steady one-two-one tempo of her heart beat guided each deep breath she took, the river like quality in which her blood flowed, and the push and pull of something else trying to find balance. She honed in on that, assuming it was what Papa wanted for her to observe.

It flowed in a cycle, going round and round, letting some release out to maintain the rest of her body. In the center was where the bulk of it focused itself, and in the center is where Ame studied.

There were two different sounds coming from the swirling mass. One half reminded her of the Koto, an instrument that Mama knew how to play and did so often. It was the smoother half that glided and twirled its way gracefully around in a peaceful manner.

The other half was more turbulent, a sound which she wasn’t sure that she had ever heard before. The notes ranged from a variety of high to low in a cacophony that made an odd sort of sense. That part of her chakra spiked and jumped at odd intervals all over the place. Often times it tried to overtake the gentler side of her chakra.

Papa started to speak again, quietly so she could continue to focus on the happenings inside of herself. “Our chakra is unique to other shinobi, and even to civilians. Our chakra is divided in two _very_ separate and individual kinds of chakra, going much further than ‘spiritual’ and ‘physical’ energy.

“Because we have two separate flows it means we have to work harder to perfect the art of using equilibrium─ balance―than even a Jounin. If we can maintain that, then we can physically change our appearance at any time and keep it for as long as necessary without actually expending much of our chakra at once. Though that is beneficial, there are drawbacks to it as well, which I’ll go into another time once we start to find your partners.”

She fidgeted around, excitement rising within.

“For now we’ll work on finding your equilibrium. It’s best to do this while moving. If you only use meditation then you’ll never get anywhere in a fight. The best method that my mother taught me was dancing.”

Papa chuckled. “Of course, back when I was your age, she made me do it blindfolded while balancing things such as weapons, books, bowls of water on my head; the kinds of things that are a pain to deal with when they fall. With you I think I’ll start off by letting you see how it’s done and slowly add in the challenges. Don’t think I’m going to spoil you though.”

He winked slyly at her, and she understood right away that the challenges wouldn’t be easy when he did decide to start incorporating them into training.

His hands found their way under her arms and he lifted her up. Ame blinked and stared at him while he set her down, telling her to watch carefully and then follow along. He started doing a slow dance, the one for the New Year’s festival if she recalled correctly. She knew most of it already, so it was quite easy to follow his movements as best as she could. It was rather difficult when he put his legs up so high and stood on his tippy toes, though. She fell over a couple times because of it.

“When you’re dancing, you’re in tune with your body. You become aware of every action that your limbs make, of the muscles stretching, of the weight moving from one end of you to the other. Listen to your body and it will tell you what it needs.”

Ame stretched and took a deep breath. While she danced, a leaf blew free of its branch. The breeze grabbed it gently and pulled it along in its own little current. The small leaf was practically weightless. It moved like it was dodging unseen obstacles; effortlessly, weaving and twirling. Dancing to its own rhythm.

She wanted her movements to be like that. Light on her toes, a rush with its own kind of tranquility to prevent premature mistakes, and smooth motions. To make herself be like the leaf was a good training goal, she thought.

There came a flash and Ame saw a pair of feet and the edges of what looked like rotating doors. They slid along the stone ground, taking tiny movements in striding ways. It appeared that the goal was to not touch the spinning doors. There was a single thought running over and over again in her head as the feet wove back and forth effortlessly to avoid being hit.

‘ _Be the leaf. Be the leaf. Be the leaf.’_

“Ame, where are you going?” Her eyes snapped open, noticing that she had drifted further away from Papa, almost all the way out of the garden. Her feet stopped what they were doing and her arms, which Ame realized were put up in a strangely defensive stance, dropped to her side.

She grinned sheepishly and sprinted back to her Papa. “Sorry, I guess I just got carried away.”

Papa chuckled, looking unconcerned but also a little stern, as if he were going to reprimand her for floating away with the leaf. He reached out and mussed up her hair as she returned to his side. She noticed then that her cat ears had finally disappeared.

“I suppose that’s alright. You did look pretty in the zone there. But you’re also going to have to pay attention to what’s around you so you don’t hurt yourself, you know.”

Ame slumped just a fraction in relief. He didn’t appear to suspect anything, thank goodness.

What just happened was probably another ‘memory’, or a dreg of one at least. They popped up every once in awhile if she became swept up in her own thoughts. If Papa were to find out then they’d have to go into Konoha again to see Inoichi. The thought almost made her wrinkle her nose.

It wasn’t that Ame didn’t like the man, honestly, it was just that... she didn’t like his jutsus. They were supposed to help cover up her so called “amnesia” so it wouldn’t hurt her, which she wasn’t entirely sure of being possible, but the jutsus themselves never lasted that long. She always felt really awful after they wore off. And then she would still remember some of the things she shouldn’t, but  also should be remembering, and it made her feel even worse.

So if she just kept those memories a secret, then she wouldn’t feel as bad anymore, or confused. Those memories often mixed in with everything else, and Ame would often wonder if she really was who she was supposed to be. She would have liked to ask questions, but she also didn’t want to be treated as an experiment. (She had once heard that was what happened to people who had weird things happen to them.)

“Alright, let’s take this from the top again. You were doing well so far, but finding equilibrium doesn’t happen in a day.” Papa cleared his throat and started to run through the dance again. This time Ame followed him and did everything as he had said to, keeping focus as best as she could on both her body and surroundings. It was hard when all she wanted to do focus on one thing at a time, though. But, like Papa had said, finding equilibrium wouldn’t happen in a day!

* * *

 

“Mama when do I get my summons?”

Ame was thoroughly irritated as of the current moment. Rikuro had been a bit of a jerk and showed off his summons (a cat, because that was usually the Hiroshi’s preferred animal) and teased her because she didn’t have one yet. Ame _hated_ it when he did that. He used to be nice and sweet, even when he was just starting his training. Now she thought he was just turning into a self absorbed jerk.

Mama turned around from her cleaning, a bemused grin spreading and claiming ownership of her pearly cheeks. “Don’t let your jealousy show honey. It’s how Rikuro knows to keep doing what he’s doing.”

Her chest puffed out angrily. Just because he knew it bugged her didn’t mean he should be allowed to get away with being...being… “ _A-a-achoo_!”

The ears sprouted upon her head, and this time a tail appeared. Mama giggled and set down her rag. She turned around and walked over to the bookshelves, beckoning for Ame to follow her with an enticing sense of allure. Ame followed after her excitedly, her long-furred tail wiggling and twitching behind her. Mama stretched on her tiptoes and pulled down a turquoise scroll from underneath the top shelf. It was a huge scroll, with gold borders on the front, old and yellowing pages inside.

Could this be…?

“Our clan has made many pacts with the cats; such noble beasts.” Mama sighed happily, unfurling the scroll with great care, as if it were an album. She knelt down, motioning Ame to join her in faint excitement. “We choose cats above other summons because they represent mystery and efficiency, much as a spy-nin should. They are loyal beasts, though you must work hard to earn that loyalty from them. And they are diligent in the tasks they are given.

“There are at least four classes of summons that we may call upon, though one being rarer than the rest. They are the messengers, the information seekers, the warriors, and the boss. The first cat you are bonded to is always the messenger. Allow me to call up Himeko and she will prepare the messenger before you may summon them.”

She watched Mama bite her thumb before running through a quick procession of hand signs. In a puff of grey smoke, a beautiful white she-cat appeared. Her fur was short, but soft on the eyes as well as to the touch. One eye was blue like the Morning Glories that crept along the edges of their homes, and the other was gold like autumn rays shining through a season changing leaf. The inside of her ears were a bright, healthy pink. Himeko bowed to Mama quickly, but politely.

“Mistress.” Her voice was quiet, yet a purr rumbled beneath and caused her words to roll and echo.

Mama stretched her hand out and rubbed Himeko affectionately on the head. The cat’s purring became louder and Ame smiled. She had always loved cats, but lately whenever she saw one that feeling was always increased by tenfold. There seemed to be this sentiment behind it, saying, ‘ _I’ve always wanted one! Those cute, cuddly, furry bastards!’_.

Ame had no idea why that phrase specifically was so agreeable, but she couldn’t think of any other reason _not_ to agree with it. Seeing Himeko being all happy and precious was like filling up a balloon inside of herself and wanting to pop it just so it could send confetti flying everywhere!

“Himeko, Ame is ready to take her training further and accept her first partner.”

Himeko nodded, bowing once again before disappearing in the same puff of smoke that brought her here. Mama turned to Ame and told her to bite her thumb until she broke the skin, and when she did that she would need to sign her name with the fresh blood. She didn’t really enjoy biting herself until she bled, but the reward was truly going to be worth it. After she finished signing her name Mama showed her how to do the hand signs. Ame felt thoroughly worn out after doing that, as she had used _a lot_ of chakra to perform a decent summoning on her first try.

There was more smoke, and this time Himeko came with a tomcat, who coward slightly into her side.

“Mistress and Kit, this is Akimitsu.” Himeko flicked her tail and nudged the young cat forward.

Akimitsu; autumn light. She could see why he was named after the season. His sleek coat was an array of oranges and mottled reds. When he walked the light shimmered off his coat and it almost made it appear like his fur was rippling. His eyes were the same golden color as Himeko’s one eye. He was a _very_ handsome cat.

Ame got down on eye level with the shaking kitten and blinked slowly. She was certain that she had read somewhere once that when you did that it then it showed that you mean no harm to the cat. And if they returned the blink, it meant that they intended the same. Akimitsu stopped a few paces away from her and sat down, wrapping his tail around his paws, watching her.

“Hi Akimitsu! My name’s Ame.” She slowly extended her hand out to him and waited. Akimitsu looked uncertainly towards Himeko, who gave a slight nod in return. He then turned back around and stretched forward to sniff her hand. Ame gave him a minute before trying to pet him. He seemed to enjoy it at first, but quickly stopped and batted her hand away, staring at her warily. She wasn’t really offended, but it was strange. Perhaps this was like some sort of test?

“Ame, why don’t you and Akimitsu go play hide-and-seek for your training today?” Mama stood up and put the book back where she got it. Ame nodded and gestured for Akimitsu to follow. Again, the tomcat looked to Himeko, this time a bit more nervous than he had been before. Himeko chuckled and gestured for him to go with Ame. Slowly, Akimitsu got up and ambled in her direction.

They left the study, walking down the traditional styled hallway quietly.

“Do you want to be It, or should I?” Ame attempted to broach a conversation with her summons, glancing down at him. The little animal’s eyes flickered up and met her own for a brief second before darting away to stare ahead.

“U-um… You?” Akimitsu’s voice was scratchy, and he didn’t sound very confident. Must have been first day jitters working a number on his nerves, she assumed.

“Wha-What? I-I mean, sure.” He certainly was such a cute cat too! She wanted to scoop him up and cuddle him fiercely. But after serious contemplation then she would bet that it’d turn sour pretty fast.

Ame grinned. “Follow me then, Akimitsu!”

‘ _Rikuro, prepare to be put in your place!_ ’

* * *

 

Papa had called for Ame to come down to the workshop earlier that day. She liked the workshop. It had all sorts of fun things, most of which were weapons, on the inside. There was always a fire going so the place was forever warm. And it also smelled like sawdust. She didn’t know why, but she enjoyed the smell. It was relaxing, in a nostalgic sort of way.

“You’ve been doing well training on your own, and with Akimitsu. I believe it’s about time that you get another partner. Most people don’t realize this, but a weapon is very much like a second partner, if you know how to make it so.” Papa wove through the shop, causing Ame to run in order to keep up with him. “We use a special wood to make our weapons. The trees grew on a metal trove and absorbed it through their roots and it strengthened them. It makes our weapons more sturdy than the standardized kind.”

Papa opened a set of doors and led the way into what appeared to be a storage for finished products. Ame looked around curiously and examined the wide collection of weapons. She kept her hands to herself, not particularly liking the energy that came from some of the inanimate objects.

“We also infuse them with lacrimas that will project our chakra. This is where the drawbacks of Henzuru come in. While it allows us to alter our shape, it also changes our chakra type so much that we can’t use any of the elemental styles. That’s why we have to have the lacrima. But aside from that then it makes it much easier to use multiple elements in a consecutive row, as it molds our chakra at a much faster rate than that of the average shinobi. Power, however, depends on how much chakra you feed it, and by extension, how big your reserve is.”

She nodded in understanding. Papa stayed at the entrance to the storage unit, looking down with a smile. “Altogether, our weapons can almost be considered partially alive. They may not speak directly, or move on their own, but they have this energy to them that speaks of a conscience. You need to find the one that speaks to _you_.”

_‘The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.’_

Ame turned away from Papa so she could wrinkle her nose without him seeing. Those thoughts and images were weird. Wizards? This was a world of shinobi. They didn’t deal in magic. They dealt in jutsus.

Stepping forward, Ame enveloped herself in the tang of metal and polished wood. She looked around at the various weapons, carefully avoiding the ones that poked their sharp ends into the aisle. None of them seemed to have that special thing that Papa had mentioned. Walking around led her to view all the various weapons that filled up the place.

When she reached the very back, all that Ame could find was a gnarled staff. It appeared to have been taken directly from a branch, or maybe a root, and smoothed so it wasn’t sharp so much as it was painfully blunt. It’d definitely hurt to get hit by that, the child speculated. It was gnarled and bumpy at the top and there were many mini branches that circled around what must have been the lacrima. Veins of metal glittered along the entirety of the staff in the little light that shined on it.To Ame it seemed to speak of time, wisdom, and a devilish cunning that hid just how dangerous of a weapon it actually was.

As she took it in her small hands another weird thought came to mind.

‘ _A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to._ ’

What was it with all these things dealing with wizards?

“Have you found one?” Ame looked over her shoulder at Papa and nodded. “Now you need to name it.”

Glancing at the staff again, she thought about how she wanted it to represent the things she had felt coming from the staff, as well as what message she wanted people to get when she fought against them. The perfect name came to mind.

“Akuma.”

Demon.

Papa startled her out of her thoughts by laughing. “Ame, Akimitsu, and Akuma. The Triple A squad. How amusing.”

A grin cracked along her face and she laughed as well, a hearty chiming sound. Papa held out his hand to her and she skipped back to take it. She couldn’t help but think of how training would be much more interesting now, and she started to bet with herself that she could even begin sparring with Rikuro.

The staff in her hand gave a satisfactory grin in the form of a mental vibe. Ame had to agree with it, and gave a little evil grin of her own. Her cousin wouldn’t know what hit him until it was too late.


	3. Re-meeting People is a Curious Thing

This was it. Today was the day. Today he, Uchiha Obito, graduated from the academy. Already he could feel himself getting closer to that dream of his. Ah, he couldn’t wait for the day when he would be in the Hokage’s office―  _ his  _ office. But right now he was going to be assigned to a genin team. Nervously he looked over at the girl sitting next to him. Though she was partially hidden by her mousy brown hair, Obito could see the sparkle in her large eyes. Flushing a little, he turned away before she could catch him staring.

‘ _It would be awesome if Rin and I can be on the same team,_ ’ he thought. He really hoped that they would. He wasn’t sure who else he’d want on his team though, since genin teams were composed as units of three. Anyone _but_ Kakashi was fine with him. 

“Team Seven, Nohara Rin, Uchiha Obito―,” Obito nearly jumped onto the desk and shouted in victory. 

‘ _ HA! Yes! Take that world! _ ’

His internal celebrating nearly caused him to miss the final member of his team being called out. “And Hatake Kakashi.”

‘ _ What?! No! No, no, no, noooooo!!! World why must you betray me this way? _ ’ Obito turned halfway around in his seat to glare at the boy. Kakashi stared passively up at the front of the class, giving no indication that he even had a reaction to the arrangement. Ugh, he didn’t even bother to acknowledge that they were  _ teammates  _ now. That guy was just so...so… He was a pain in the ass was what he was!

Obito turned back around and folded his arms on the desk, hiding most of his face in order to glare at the teacher and sulk. 

It wasn’t any fair. Having a guy like Kakashi on the team was only going to ruin everything.  _ Especially  _ between him and Rin. It didn’t really help that he knew the girl he crushed on happened to actually  _ like _ that jerk-who-shall-not-be-named. 

The teacher signaled the end of class and turned them loose to go meet up with their new team leaders. Obito had been spacing out again, so he missed who it was they were supposed to be meeting. He could ask Rin, maybe, but then he’d get scolded by her for not paying attention. That and Kakashi would probably have some snide remark to add to it. 

‘ _ Hmph, jerk. _ ’

Rin stood up and he did the same, nearly falling over because he moved too quickly. 

Maybe he should just follow her around? She should know where to go, right? No, that might be creepy. What if they weren’t supposed to meet up with their leader until later? But when would that later be? Shoot, what if he ended up being late because of that? Nothing said great way to start off the beginnings of a genin team by being late on the first day.

“I think we should go wait outside for our new sensei,” Rin said, shuffling somewhat awkwardly towards the door. Her eyes flickered hesitantly between him and Kakashi. She wasn’t really the assertive type, so her words were minced more as a suggestion for someone else to take the lead, or at least agree with her. But since Kakashi was involved in this decision making business then she was mostly deferring to him on the matter. Though it bothered him, Obito tried his best to shake it off and think positively.

‘ _ Sweet! Two birds killed with one stone. _ ’

Obito internally clenched his fist in victory. Now he knew the name of their squad leader  _ and  _ where to go. He quickly expressed his agreements with Rin before Kakashi could so much as grunt and he followed her outside, not really caring if his new sullen prick of a teammate was doing the same. Heck, it’d be better if he didn’t. The guy didn’t really need to be apart of the team anyways. No one needed a guy with a stick up his ass on their team after all.

A blast of fresh air hit him the second he stepped outside. It felt good, blowing through his hair and re-invigorating him. Obito thought he could faintly catch the sound of windchimes beyond the schoolyard. He liked the sound of the simple instrument. It reminded him of the easy days where he just lazed about and put his worries aside. Bright sunlight warming his skin, the grass soft enough for sleeping on, and a scenic view of the skyline– a piece of heaven on earth. He really did love days like that, especially in times as hard as these.

Rin sat down on the steps, smoothing out the folds of her outfit. Obito glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, pretending that he wasn’t  _ really  _ looking at her. He liked how she looked like a doll; perfect poise, soft hair, warm brown eyes. She was so kind, and smart, and so  _ beautiful _ . He could have just stared at her all day―   _ if _ that wasn’t something socially considered  _ weird _ .

Obito looked away from Rin to see if their new squad leader had come yet. As of the moment, he could see nothing but an empty school yard. He sat down with a loud sigh and put his elbows on his knees and hands on his cheeks. 

‘ _Geez,_ ’ he thought, ‘ _and everyone said_ I _had problems with being late._ ’

A few minutes pass him by in complete silence and he wondered what he should say to break it. They were supposed to be a team, so they should socialize like one, right? But what could he talk about without making it obvious that he’s just trying to fill a void? Rin looked fairly comfortable with the quiet, and Kakashi was doing who knew what. (Not that  _ he _ cared what that jerk was doing or anything.) 

Just as he was about to crash through the wall of awkward silence, his attention was caught by the sight of a girl walking past the gates of the academy. She stopped and glanced around curiously. Hesitantly.

Normally, things like this wouldn’t phase him, but the girl was striking a chord in his memory. Obito squinted a little and stared at her in contemplation, trying to put his finger on where he had seen her before. She wasn’t an Uchiha, and wasn’t a kid that he had played with recently, or often. He thought a little harder. Could she have been someone he met a while back?

The longer he stared the more familiar she became, thus making him more annoyed at not being able to place a name to her face.

Slowly, bits and pieces started coming back to him. The kid was definitely smaller when they had first met. Well, she was still small now, but it wasn’t obvious that she grew much since the last (and technically first) time he saw her. Her dark― almost black, yet not quite there ―hair hung just past her knees. The shorter ends, around the area of her bangs almost, were pulled back and braided around her head. The darkness of her hair contrasted with her skin tone, making her pale pallor more apparent. If it weren’t for her clothes, then Obito would have surely been hard pressed to believe she was anything other than a spirit; or because of her odd staff, a guardian of some sort.

She also seemed to have abandoned traditional wear. Now it seemed that she had decided to try and grow out of the kiddie style and aim for something a bit more, well, louder. 

Her coat spoke out the most, coming down to her knees and just barely making it past the length of her hair. It was a beige, borderline white coat, and the sleeves only came to about her elbows. There was a black shirt― maybe a tank top judging by the kind of material it looked to be ―which mostly hid her shorts underneath. The final touch to the apparel were the standard shoes that shinobi were issued. In her right hand she carried a dangerous looking staff with what looked like veins of silver starlight running through it.

The girl turned her head, then, and locked eyes with him, as if she had sensed him watching her. Even from this distance he could see with clarity the color of her eyes; a mixture of brown, grey, and amber. It reminded him of the woods in autumn with the way the colors swirled and spliced together; bright and vivid, even in darkness. 

He was also reminded of something she had said with absolute surety, and utter seriousness. And with it, everything clicked into place.

_ “You guys are going to be a genin team.” _

Obito stood up, and jogged over to the little girl.

“Hey, where are you going?” He ground his teeth together when Kakashi asked–  _ practically demanded _ – the question.

“I’ll be right back,” he responded, letting the mild annoyance seep into his tone. “It’s not like I’m actually  _ going _ anywhere.”

Not wanting to hear anything else, he ran over to the little girl. Obito skidded to a halt just at the gate, not all that far from her. Casually he leaned against the wood, using his hand mostly, and he grinned. Up close she really didn’t look any different than before, just a little older. There was still something pretty childish about her features after all.

Before he could say anything the girl spoke, her voice very crisp and pleasant for a little kid. “Can I help you?”

He blinked in surprise. Did she not remember him? Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised. Now that he thought about it, it had been two years, and a lot had happened during their encounter. With a slight shudder, which he tried his best to keep invisible to her roaming eyes, he remembered the strange and rather scary thing that had happened to the little girl. It had been like she was drowning while on land.

“Yeah, I think you kind of owe me your name.” Okay that kind of came out wrong. “I-I mean, when we first met a couple years ago I told you mine, but you never told me yours. Do– do you even remember me?”

He pointed at himself, his smile starting to feel awkward and a little forced on his face.

She tilted her head a fraction to the left and stared at him for a moment. She gave no indication of remembering him, but it didn’t fail to escape his notice the way she shifted and clutched the staff to her chest. Was she nervous? He wasn’t creeping her out right now, was he? Obito began to raise his hand, fully prepared to launch himself into a frenzied apology for bothering her. His cheeks grew a little warm because of it.

“My name’s Hiroshi Ame.” The girl suddenly broke her silence and offered her left hand out to him. Hesitantly, he took it in his own, while also trying to shake off the feeling that he had somehow messed up. The girl– Ame –looked around him and peered cautiously at Rin and Kakashi. He turned around with her, but couldn’t see anything wrong. Obito turned around again and forced himself to relax, rubbing the back of his head.

“We’re a genin team now, just graduated today.” Obito laughed sheepishly. Ame smiled and mumbled a congratulations. Without really thinking about it she raised her hand to her lips and somewhat anxiously began picking at them. A frown threatened to appear, tugging every few seconds at the corners of his mouth, like a nervous tic.

Since it was bugging him because he had brought it up, he felt that he should ask. “How did you know that we’d be a team?”

She stiffened a little, but opened her mouth to answer anyways. “I– ”

“Ame! What are you doing we have to  _ go _ , geez!” Obito’s head swiveled sharply to the right and he saw a boy about his age jogging up to them. The boy wore fairly inconspicuous clothing; a black shirt with dark grey pants and sandals. His hair was semi-long, some of it tied back, but most of it fell freely and into his eyes, which were like polished obsidian. Peeking around his hair were matching sable hilts. They appeared to be made out of the same material as Ame’s staff, despite the difference in color.

Ame whirled around to face the boy, looking flustered. “Sorry Rikuro, I was just talking with Obito.”

He beamed brightly when she said his name. So she did remember! The boy named Rikuro– maybe he was her brother? –scowled at her, and then at him.

“We’ve gotta meet with the Sandaime, and dad said to be punctual. This  _ isn’t _ being punctual!”

‘ _ Siblings. Definitely siblings. _ ’

“ _ Your  _ dad said be punctual,  _ Papa _ said that the Hokage is forgiving if we’re only a few minutes late.”

‘ _ Not siblings. Cousins then? _ ’

“Well in the end we’re gonna be late because _you_ _won’t shut up and start walkin’!_ ” The boy named Rikuro grabbed Ame by the wrist and started to drag her away. Obito didn’t feel that it was his place to stop the other boy from doing anything, especially since they were meeting with the Hokage, but he couldn’t help but feel bad as he watched the girl get forcefully dragged off.

He leaned past the gate and called out to her with a wave. “Bye Ame!”

The little girl looked over her shoulder and gave a small smile and a wave back. Pleased, he turned around and shoved his hands in his pockets. So maybe he hadn’t gotten an answer to his question, but he had a feeling that he’d see more of that girl now. Obito didn’t mind the idea of actually being friends with her. She seemed pretty interesting, despite this being only their second time meeting and conversing. At least nothing happened this time…

Another shiver ran down his spine. Would he ever find out about what happened that day? Did he really want to know? Perhaps it’d be better if he kept some of his questions to himself. Ame might not want to remember something like that.

After reaching that conclusion he shook his head in agreement with himself and looked up. Obito realized then that, while he had been distracted with Ame, it seemed his new squad leader had finally arrived. 

The golden haired man, with his fancy Jōnin vest, chuckled a little when Obito sprinted to get back to the steps of the academy. Kakashi rolled his eyes and Obito wanted to deck him,  _ severely _ . It wasn’t his fault that the man that was supposed to be their new teacher was late and that he had found something better to do than just sit there waiting! His expression must have been a cause for worry, because a glance at Rin told him that she looked ready to put herself between the two of them so that they wouldn’t start fighting.

“You must be Obito then,” Obito’s focus shifted back to the man. “I’m Namikaze Minato. Do you mind my asking of who the girl was that you were talking to?”

The man surprised him. He seemed to be very polite. That was actually pretty cool in his book. A sloppy half grin squeezed its way over his face and Obito answered cheerfully, “Actually that was a girl I had met a couple years ago.”

He looked more to Rin than Kakashi when he elaborated himself. “You remember that kid that tackled me and then said weird things, right? That was her. I got her name by the way. It’s Ame. Hiroshi Ame.”

Kakashi nodded his head, but continued to act disinterested. Rin took a moment but she got it. Minato’s reaction was a little bit more… different.

“Hiroshi, you say? She must be a member of that spy-nin clan then. I wouldn’t expect to see much more of her.” Minato probably hadn’t meant anything mean by it, but Obito felt kind of put off. 

Seeing this Minato put his hand on Obito’s shoulder and gave a pat. “I know Kouhei though, the head of that clan. He and I have gone on a few mission’s together. Who knows, maybe you and Ame will be able to do the same too.”

Obito perked up a bit. Though the consolation wasn’t very strong, it did make him a bit more hopeful at the prospect of it. He knew that the feeling he had had about Ame was right. While he continued to mull over it, Minato gestured for them to follow him, and they headed off in the direction of the training fields. 


	4. Chapter 4

“You can’t just stop and do whatever you like when you  _ know  _ we have to make it to an important meeting,” Rikuro griped, letting go of Ame’s wrist since there wasn’t any need to drag her off anymore. 

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Both you and Oji-san are so time sensitive. We’re gonna be fine.”

Rikuro muttered something under his breath but Ame paid him no attention. Lately he had been getting pretty worked up and she couldn’t really understand why. Was his dad increasing the pressure on his missions? That was probably it. Hiroshi Ryouta was a strict, responsible, and well groomed man. At least, that’s how Papa always described his brother anyway. The only thing Ame saw when it came to her uncle was the strict part.

Ame fell into step behind Rikuro again and they hurried up to the central building of Konoha, where the Hokage’s office was. Another wave of anxiousness swelled within her stomach, this one different from when Obito had asked her that question. When he had asked her how she had known him and the others would become a team, she thought she could feel the beginnings of drowning once again. But this? This anxiousness was normal, practically a relief. Something that everyone would get if they were going to a meeting with the Hokage because they were registering into Konoha’s system as an official spy-nin.

That was Papa’s agreement with Konoha. The Hiroshi would be their spies, but their leash was registering themselves into a database for precaution, several times if needs be, and swearing an oath. 

Rikuro said that they would ask some questions as well. More than just standard ones confirming who she was. He said that the way they phrased those questions was pretty intimidating too. Like if she were to answer wrong then she was going to be marked as a potential target and shot if they even thought she stepping a toe out of line. It was frightening, but that’s what it meant to be a spy-nin. No one would trust you without a backup plan to get rid of you.

But Papa had been reassuring Ame that the Sandaime was a fair old man. He said to think of the Hokage as a grandfather almost; someone to respect because of their wisened age, but also to love because they treat you well. When Papa put it like that then it wasn’t hard to find peace in herself so as to not feel  _ too _ anxious.  

The big building’s shadow encompassed her and Ame looked up to see it tower high above her and Rikuro. The older boy clicked his tongue and kept on walking. She had to sprint to catch up with him, clutching Akuma closer to her side so she didn’t drop it. It didn’t fail to escape her stingy cousin’s notice.

“Why don’t you just strap it to your back? You’ll be able to maneuver more accurately.”

“Because it’s a staff and you’re supposed to carry them. Besides, Akuma’s too long to fit on my back without dragging on the ground and knocking against my ankles.” Ame reached Rikuro again with a huff and he snickered.

“Shorty.”

“Jerk!”

“Pint size.”

“Richi-chan!”

“Brat!”

Rikuro bumped into Ame playfully and she returned the gesture with more force. His arm snaked around the little girl’s neck to put her into a headlock. They wrestled, Ame to get out of the headlock before he noogied her and Rikuro to, well, noogie her! The rough housing was quickly stopped, though, when they heard the sharp thud of a set of footsteps coming towards them.

“Rikuro, Ame, stop fooling around. You’re going to be late.” The headlock was broken instantly. Rikuro and Ame pulled away from each other in embarrassment. Ryouta stood in front of them with a displeased frown curling along his pale face. 

“Sorry Father.”

“Sorry Oji-san.”

Ryouta muttered something and it became much more clear as to where Rikuro picked the bad habit up from. He turned his back, garbed in standard ninja clothing instead of something more personal for him. The duo followed after him, trying to keep pace with his long stride. Rikuro had an easier time just because he had inherited legs that grew fast like weeds. As much as Ame hated being called short she couldn’t exactly deny that that’s what she was.

Ryouta led them up a few flight of stairs until they stood in front of two large, closed oak doors. He knocked and there came a strong gruff voice telling them to come in. He opened one of the doors and stood aside to let the kids in first. Ame looked around in awe. The room was spacious and brightly lit, with a large desk positioned near the windows. Seated in the chair just behind the desk was an old man wearing the robes and red hat of the Hokage. There weren’t many wrinkles on his face, the majority of the majority of the ones he did have being around his eyes. She could tell that he actually smiled a lot, despite his calm and serious appearance. 

“Hiroshi Ame.” The little girl straightened out immediately and stepped past Rikuro. Ame stood in a swatch of light from the window. The sunshine felt good and it warmed her, keeping her relaxed even as she stood at attention. Akuma rested lightly in her loose grip, planted firmly at her side.

The Hokage nodded in approval, soul filled eyes studying her intently― as if they could pry away all of her secrets. “I trust that you understand why you are here, and that you know what all will be done?”

Ame nodded slowly. Once again, she wondered what kind of questions he would ask. Or had that just been something Rikuro had said to scare her? She couldn’t sense any frightening or imposing will coming from the Hokage. Normally, when people intend to grill her for an answer they would send out this aura of will that made them seem bigger and more intimidating― like a predator that raised its hackles to warn off enemies. The Hokage’s vibes reminded her of Papa, but older. 

He really was like a grandfather.

The Hokage pulled several sheets of paper out from under his desk, along with a pen, and slid the items forward with a gesture for her to come look. Ame did as she was told and saw that they were a contract. The details entailed were about the services she was required to provide to the Hidden Leaf, the services she may and may not provide, and the consequences of betrayal. At the bottom was a place to sign her name as well as put a blood print. 

Ame never really understood the reasoning behind a blood print. What good did it do to promise on blood? It was just silly to her, as well as painful. But in that aspect she concluded that her reasoning really made her a kid, since a blood print was something that adults had come up with.

She took the pen in her right hand and shakily signed her name, pricking her thumb and pressing it against the pristine white page. The Hokage slid the paper back and onto a stack. For a moment he stared at Ame. Then, slowly, a smile crept upwards into what she could already tell was a familiar look for him. Ame found it hard to resist returning the smile, caving in and letting it lift her cheeks happily.

“Welcome among the ranks of Konohagakure’s shinobi, Ame.” The Hokage blinked, and she picked up on the signal of dismissal. With a slight bow she backed away and turned to go. Rikuro followed after her, but Ryouta stayed behind with a short, but polite command from the Sandaime.

Once the two were outside of the office, Rikuro immediately jumped into conversational mode. “You were lucky. When I had been brought in Danzo and the other elders were there, and they weren’t as nice as the Hokage.”

The little girl could only stare at him mutely in wonder at the scrap of luck she seemed to have been blessed with. Rikuro began to walk away, still talking animatedly about his experience. Ame followed after him, the tail of her coat swishing along behind herself.

* * *

 

“ _ A-a-achoo! _ ” Ame sneezed and deeply regretted it. After physically growing up some then she’d finally moved on from just producing the cat ears and tail, now to fully transforming into a cat. It was cumbersome not having the transformation mastered so that it didn’t happen whenever she sneezed. But as Papa had said (countless times), finding equilibrium didn’t happen in a day, let alone a year. Currently, she was just going to have to deal with dragging Akuma around in this small form. 

Luckily she had managed to sneeze along the road to Konoha, which was fairly empty as of the moment, instead of the actual village itself. A lot of people would freak out if they saw a girl just turn into a cat. A lot of people would also probably start a hunt. Kekkei Genkai’s weren’t a widely accepted gift, and were generally hated. Combine that with being a spy-nin and, well…. Ame decided that she might just go wait this out in the forest for a little bit. 

Originally, she was supposed to go see if there were any jobs she could take, or at least someone who would train with her for a bit, but it looked like that was going to be delayed for some time.

Taking Akuma in her already too small mouth, Ame started to drag it off the road and into the forest. The journey immediately grew to be problematic as she struggled along in a tiny body, dragging the long staff over roots and around rocks. Oh how she  _ loathed  _ being small. While, yes, it did have its perks in battle― according to literally  _ everyone _ in her family ―she just  _ couldn’t stand it. _ Rikuro made fun of her for it most of the time, and she was too little to do a lot of things, and then there was  _ this. _ This was just plain ridiculous!

Akuma caught on a root, sending Ame sprawling backwards.

She jumped up and tugged at the staff furiously, little growls and mewls escaping past her clenched jaw and wood alike. The only thing she succeed in was lodging the part with the lacrima even further into the roots. Giving up, Ame let go of her end of the staff and started to circle it, angrily batting at it like it would do something. When that got out of her system then she simply sat and stared at it, willing it to move. Of course that was just wishful thinking on her part.

With a deep huff, Ame stalked away from Akuma and proceeded to keep going in the direction she had been planning to go in the first place. It wasn’t a good idea to just leave her weapon lying around like that, but until she got her bigger body and opposable thumbs back, then she wasn’t gonna be much help to the staff either way. And she also knew that _that_ wasn’t going to happen until after she settled down. 

Grumbling to herself, Ame moseyed on through the forest to try calming down. It was actually a rather easy feat, considering that in her cat state she was naturally attracted to different things. Soon she found that her senses overtook most of her thoughts, and Ame was pulled along by nature in a fit of distraction. Quietly, softly, her little paws padded along the the soil and moss, feeling the elements slip gingerly between her bean sized toes. All around the birds chirped pleasantly in song. 

In these forests near Konoha many of the birds were small. As such one could find many Koels and Cuckoos. The larger, hunter type birds were the Kites, but weren’t often seen so deep into the forest. Earthy scents cloyed her sensitive nose, teasing her with traces and trails of small mammals. And the clarity in which Ame could perceive everything― it was so much sharper than that of even a well trained human eye.

With a slight flutter her ear twitched to the right. The sound was faint, but unmistakable. The irritating screeching of metal clashing against metal; some people must be out training, therefore there must be a training field nearby. Ame parted her jaw slightly to taste the air, taking full advantage of the heightened senses. A flood of mixed scents washed through her, but she picked out the scent of human and began to follow it.

Her pace picked up as the sounds grew louder, more defined. Ame could hear kids, mostly boys. There came a cry of surprise and a loud rumbling that made the earth tremor slightly and her spine arched in minimal panic. Everything was so amplified in her small body! She glimpsed the light filtering in from the edge of what must have been an outlet to a clearing, catching snippets of a mock battle. 

Ame’s curiosity grew. What kind of fighting styles did shinobi of the Leaf have that differed from that of the Hiroshi?

Ame wanted to see what was going on, but just to be safe she decided to stick to some high ground and not venture out into the clearing. She was just a small kitten, and her going out there would probably disrupt a lot more than she cared to clean up. Ame turned and launched up the nearest tree, scrabbling to get a good hold on the trunk and slowly inch her way up to the lowest branch. Her entire body quivered from the effort it took to drag her way up.

But the reward was indeed a generous one. 

Settling down on her haunches, Ame watched the furious exchange with fascination, her excitement peaking as she recognized the kids training. They were with a golden haired man, whom she assumed must have been their sensei. Together everyone’s dynamics, though very sloppily, melded together. The girl, Rin if she remembered correctly, appeared to be more of a mediating fighter. She bounced between helping the raven haired Obito and the silver Kakashi, though it was obvious that her help was a bit more oriented towards one boy over the other. The kunoichi’s movements were choppy and sluggish, and she took a second too long to react after a blow was delivered. Overall, though, she seemed to have taken a firm stance as kind of the backbone to her teammates. 

Ame’s focus temporarily shifted towards the teacher. His motions were much lighter, more swift, compared to his students. It was expected of course, but she sensed that the golden haired man wasn’t just  _ some teacher _ . He was a thinker, clever. Even from here she could see that he watched the movements of his students intently and plotted different strategies to counteract them. His expression, though shinobi were trained to never show any, gave way to how calm and collected he really was in this bizarre moment― which also went to show that he was only training novices.

Again, Ame’s dark gaze wandered over those said novices. Obito’s actions spoke the loudest to her (as well as actually sounding the loudest but that was a whole other matter). His intent seemed to be more for big and flashy, thinking that the more apparent his tenacity was known then the more likely it would get him somewhere. He put too much force into his punches, too much into his dodges ― which sent him further away each time ― and too much or sometimes even too little into his jutsus. Obito was also not very graceful. She couldn’t even begin to count the number of times she watched him trip, whether it was over himself or something on the ground he fell a lot. He was not the best fighter, kind of like herself (especially when she had first started out). 

This brought her to the final player in this mock battle, Kakashi. Ame had heard a few things from Papa, and even Mama, about Kakashi. He was what was known as a prodigy in the Leaf. He’d had some good training beforehand from his own papa, if she recalled correctly, and he was smart enough that he caught onto things quickly. Seeing this with her own eyes, she could somewhat understand what they had meant when they had said he was gifted. Though it was apparent that he wasn’t a team player. 

From the way she understood it, he treated Rin and Obito as one of two things, each varying between the two of them. To him they were either a hinderance, or merely a tool. It was his own form of arrogance almost. Ame had this notion, strangely, that it was his  _ gakai _ , fatal flaw.

‘ _ That’ll probably come back to bite him in the butt,’ _ she thought.

The battle ended quickly after she reached the conclusion of her assessment. The leader dealt a hard blow to each of the genin with what appeared to be a simple wind-style jutsu. The kids were knocked back and left sprawled in the still fluttering grass. The leader called for a break, praising and admonishing each of them on the different things they needed to work on. Obito mostly got admonishment, but there was a little praise for his spirit in the fight, which made him beam with pride. Their sensei told them to take a break before they continued with their training with chakra control.

While Ame may have been taught about chakra control techniques she’d never seen others do it aside from Papa. She wondered how someone else went about it, settling down even further on her haunches in preparation for a long wait. Ame didn’t particularly excel at chakra control. Most of the time she wound up having to meditate to work on equilibrium. Over time she had found that the rougher half of her chakra tended to expel too much and would send her flying more often than not, while the gentler side hardly released enough to let herself stick to a tree. Through sheer force of will alone had she managed to get to the lowest branch of, rather unfortunately, the smallest tree in her family’s estate.

The chatter of everyone grew louder and Ame realized that the trees they nearing were the little copse where her own stood. 

“I’m gonna make it to the top today!” Obito yelled with enthusiastic determination. Kakashi, with his arms folded tightly over his chest, muttered something incoherent that seemed to make Obito angry. Rin immediately when into mediation mode (obviously it wasn’t just something reserved for battles). Ame got the feeling that Rin had been doing this for a  _ long _ time. 

They each took a tree, miraculously avoiding hers, and began to gather the indefinite particles of life they all called chakra at the bottoms of their feet. Obito wasted no time in prepping and launched himself at his tree. His haste caused him to trip over his own feet. Seconds later Kakashi followed through and made it up about a third of his tree, nearly reaching the lowest branch. Rin took a little bit longer to start before she ran to the tree and used her momentum to push up. But the moment she was on the tree then she took her time going up―building her strength and figuring out her limitations. It was an adept move, and Ame made a mental note to try that out later when she went home to practice.

“That was awesome Rin! You’re so smart!” Obito crowed after the young kunoichi made her mark on the tree and lept back. He got up and tried again, showing small signs of mimicking the girl’s actions. With a powerful kickstart to his run he pushed against the tree and ran without stopping. He just barely missed, though through sheer force of will over chakra control, reaching the bottom branch. As he fell, he turned his head. Ame instantly knew she’d been spotted. Obito landed rather painfully on his rear end, but he simply scratched the back of his head and stood up, still staring at her.

Ame was at a complete loss for what she should do. On one hand an innate desire to panic bubbled within her small chest, this definitely being something that she had come to learn as something that went with being caught while doing her job (which meant that she hadn’t been doing her job well enough) as a spy-nin. This panic urged her to run away back into the forest. But on the other hand she knew there wasn’t any need to panic. It wasn’t like he was going to recognize her as she was. Just so long as he stayed away then―

‘ _ Why do I have to speak so soon? _ ’

Obito skirted around his teammates and positioned himself under Ame’s tree, angling his head to get a better look at her, searching out a possible route to take so he could climb up without any hassle.

“Changing trees isn’t going to improve your lack of skill, idiot.” Kakashi lazily threw the jibe out and the muscles twitched in Obito’s jaw. He didn’t respond, backing away as he gathered chakra in his feet. She sensed the shift almost immediately and knew that he wasn’t trying to purposefully show off now, being completely serious.

Obito opened his eyes and began to run at the tree, quickly turning into running  _ up _ the tree. Again he lost control of his chakra and it turned into a rather mad struggle where he gripped his arms tightly around the trunk and shimmied up to her branch.

“Hey that’s cheating!” Kakashi yelled with an actual bit of feeling in his voice, as if he truly felt this was an outrage which warranted indignation. Again Obito ignored him, heaving himself up the branch and panting heavily as soon as he was in a stable position. After a minute he turned his head to look at her, grinning and holding out his hand.

In a soft voice he cooed, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”

An embarrassing heat crept just under her skin and she fluffed her fur as she stood up. Ame knew that she shouldn’t be feeling insulted, he was unaware that she was actually a human being whom he was somewhat acquainted with. Yet she couldn’t help it. It was like when Rikuro talked to her with a baby voice. Ame  _ hated  _ that.

Noticing that his attempts weren’t going to have the desired effect he stopped talking and just leaned forward a little, keeping his palm open and fingers splayed out. After about a minute of holding this pose Obito sighed and retracted his hand to scratch his head. Then it seemed an idea struck him as he ran his hand just under the straps of his goggles. Obito took the orange tinted things off of his head and offered them to the little cat-girl. His strong scent wafted from the contraption, just like where the pheromones on a cat were mostly located. A little overwhelmed by the heightened senses, Ame leaned forward and took a tentative sniff.

For the most part the goggles smelled like sweat and dirt, which was understandable, but underneath it was a smoky tang. It reminded her of cooking meat, the wood in the fire sending out pleasurable aromas. It was comforting and may or may not have led her to step inside of the goggles, which turned out to be the perfect size for her, to get a better smell of them. Obito took this as some sort of cue of trust and he lifted the goggles up to take a closer look at her. Ame mewled in panic at the sudden motion.

Obito drew her close to his chest just before dropping down from the tree, the landing rattling poor Ame more than him― so much that she clawed her way up onto his shoulder and  _ stayed  _ there.

He laughed, such a gentle sound that differed from his raucous boasting one. His left hand reached up to rub her soft fur.

“Obito what were you doing?” The leader of the squad appeared in front of them with a reprimanding gaze, his blue eyes sending an electric shock down Ame’s spine as they caught sight of her.

“Sorry Minato-sensei,” Obito apologized a little bashfully. “I just saw this kitten in the tree and it looked stuck, so I had to help.”

‘ _ Stuck? I could have come down  _ anytime  _ I wanted to, _ ’ she internally huffed.

The leader, known as Minato, bent down just a little to meet Ame’s eyes. His clear gaze melted into a strange fondness and he reached out with a large hand to gently rub her head. Very much against her will, Ame started to purr. Obito and Minato laughed, which caused the other two students to come see what was going on.

“A cat? You put on that ridiculous display for a cat?” Kakashi scoffed, turning away just as soon as he had come. 

“Oh how cute!” Rin squealed at the same time. She reached out to pet Ame, Minato moving out of the way, and gently ran her fingers through the semi-long coat. Ame purred louder and leaned into the hand, practically begging for Rin to keep petting.

_ ‘Wait no! Stop that! Stop that right now!’  _ Ame shook her head to clear her mind. She turned her head as Rin reached out to try petting her again and nipped the girl’s soft flesh.

“Hey, no biting,” Obito scolded, bopping her on the head. In return Ame batted his hand away, leaping off his shoulder and onto grass that came halfway up her tiny body. Shaking, Ame tried to pad away. 

Of course Obito has to counteract her escape attempt by sitting down and pulling her into his lap. He started to scratch behind her ears, and Ame desperately flicked her head and tried to run away. 

‘ _ The longer this goes on the more I can’t keep it up because _ ― _ oh my goodness that feels so good _ .’ Ame lost her thought and began to rub against him as his petting turned to light scratching. She now understood cats on a whole new level.

‘ _ Oh, oh, oh! Over, over, down...ah right there! _ ’

A squeaky meow escaped her furry lips and everyone, with the exception of a certain silver haired child, laughed. But, once again. Ame snapped to her senses, though slightly sluggish from that rush of euphoria, and actually managed escape this time. Obito whined and tried to get her to come back, but this cat had to run.

Ame scampered away into the forest, stumbling over roots and stones. She could hear Obito calling for her to come back, but his sensei told him to stay there. Soon the calls faded out and all that was left for her to hear was the chatter of obnoxious birds. With a little faulty memory making the path confusing, she lost herself a couple times before finally making it back to Akuma. She could tell that the staff was unhappy at being left, but at the moment it didn’t matter. A tremor ran through her body, and with it a tingling sensation. With a slight pop Ame transformed into a real girl again. Blushing furiously, she grasped Akuma and pulled it from the roots before falling on her bum, gasping.

That was so embarrassing! Absolutely, totally, infuriatingly ridiculous! She was going to have to work on controlling the animal like urges, a daunting task presented by heightened senses. Nothing so horribly distressing like that had happened to her since sixth grade when that rude boy made fun of her for the way she talked.

She blinked, chest twitching in a manner that threatened to tighten and cut off her air. 

There it was again. A memory that didn’t fit like the odd puzzle piece out. She could hardly stand these things anymore. They certainly didn’t come around so often, perhaps because she had purposefully been training her mind to focus on normal, everyday life instead of trying to reflect on the past, but when they did return then it was very inconvenient and random. And it was odd; when she tried to see herself in these memories, she was nothing more than a blur. Everything else around her was crystal clear except for herself.

What did it mean? Why was it happening to her? What could she do to make it stop?

Mama had once told her that Konoha had a great library. Maybe she could try to find things out there. It would be a good place to start, and if she could balance her time between training and missions as well as family then she should be able to find the time to study.

But how did one study when they didn’t know what it was they’re looking for? 

Ame glanced at Akuma, wondering if the seemingly ancient wood would perhaps reveal an answer to her, or at the very least give a hint. The staff remained silent and she sighed, picking herself up off the ground. Until she could find the time, her questions would have to remain stubbornly unraveled mysteries.


	5. Underlying Tensions and New Rivalries

Ame sat in the same tree branch as the day before watching the exact same genin team train again. This time she didn’t turn into a cat, so she was able to leisurely sit in the tree with one leg dangling off of the branch and Akuma resting in her lap. Today was actually a nice day for training. The cumulus clouds floated about high above casting gentle shadows, and the sweet breeze rippled through the grass in tiny waves. The pressure of the sun was barely even notable as well.

The genin team had been training long before she had even arrived, since dawn or a little later than that perhaps. They should be nearing a point where the team leader, Minato, would call for a break. When the time comes then she would jump in and ask if they’d let her join their training.

Minato released another simple wind-style jutsu and everyone was knocked onto their backs. Immediately after he called for a short break. 

‘ _ This is my cue! _ ’

Ame hopped down from the branch and landed with a little less grace than she had been aiming for. Her hand grasped the uneven surface of the trunk, trying to will herself forward, but it was like her feet had become roots. A quick glance down revealed, thankfully, that that was not the case. Her heart, however, seemed to provide an answer to the problem though.

If she had to admit it then she was a little nervous to be asking if she could join in their training. Really the only people she has ever trained with were family members, so it was a bit intimidating to ask some acquaintances. There was also the matter of the age difference too. Kids in the Hidden Leaf attended an academy until they were eleven, then they were put into genin teams. Hiroshi children were automatically exempt from the ranks of genin and chunin until they turned fifteen when they were allowed to take the test for jōnin status, because training is relatively complete by then. Right now Ame was only eight, so they might not take her seriously or treat her too gently. 

But if she stayed there then she would never find out.

With a shaky breath Ame put one foot forward and relinquished her grip on the tree. The sun fell over her as she stepped out from beneath the shade and curled tender rays of heat through her very being. It was a comforting sensation, almost as if it were telling her that she could do this. Straightening out, Ame walked towards the group with just a bit more confidence than before.

The first to spot her was the sensei. For a second Ame froze, but only just a second. She remained light on her toes by default, a habit ingrained since she was a toddler, as she treaded towards them. When she came within range so they could speak without shouting, Minato called out to her.

“Hello, is there something we can help you with?”

The genins twisted in their spots to look at the little girl. Obito’s face lit up in recognition and he waved with a huge grin on his face. With a shy smile Ame waved back, suddenly aware of all the attention. She could now say she understood why Akimitsu always acted skittish when multiple people focused on him.

“Um,” She gulped, cursing her  _ great _ start. “I was wondering if you would let me train with you guys?”

As if he had been expecting something better, Kakashi snorted and turned away. Obito shot him a glare before turning around to plead with his teacher. On one hand, Ame was grateful he seemed so willing to help her to such an extent, but on the other hand it was confusing as to why he’d do it in the first place. After all, they really only know each other’s names.

The sound of Obito clapping his hands together pulled Ame out of her thoughts, and the raven haired boy bowed to his teacher.

Minato glanced often between the two of them, eyebrows rising in surprise. For a moment he appeared to consider the request. Meanwhile Ame’s gaze continuously darted between the golden haired man and his three students. Rin often turned her head back and forth between Minato and Ame, mostly in mild curiosity. The little girl could tell that the brunette didn’t really have an opinion on the matter, and Ame didn’t know if this should worry her or not. 

Kakashi, on the other hand, looked like this would be the worst joke ever played on him if Minato actually allowed the younger child to train with them.

“Well,” Minato said slowly, jolting the girl’s attention back to him. “I think a spar is in order to determine your capabilities before I can say for sure. Obito, since you seem insistent on advocating…?”

He paused, realizing that he didn’t have my name. She leapt into action. “Ame. Hiroshi Ame.”

His eyebrows rose even further and suddenly a look of understanding flashed in his eyes. Why? Perhaps it had something to do with Obito?

“Obito, you can be Ame’s sparring partner then.”

“Alright!” Obito jumped up excitedly and turned to face Ame, grinning in a way that she couldn’t help but return.

“Dolt, don’t go getting so excited. Minato-sensei didn’t say she could train with us yet,” Kakashi muttered quietly, strangely enough that Ame seemed to have been the only one to hear. He stood up the same time as Rin and together with Minato they gave the two some space for a spar. 

Immediately Ame couldn’t help but say to Obito, “Don’t go easy on me, please.”

“Ha! Don’t worry I plan to give it everything I’ve got!” Obito exaggerated the statement by pointing to himself with his thumb and winking. Her grin grew a little wider, more feral, and she shift into a defensive stance, gripping Akuma tightly in both hands. He pulled out a kunai from a pouch and held it in front of him, leaning forward so he could prepare for a rush once the match started.

‘ _ He’s so easy to read _ ,’ she thought with an inward smirk.

Minato put his hand up and yelled, “Go!”

* * *

 

In Kakashi’s opinion, setting the little kid against Obito wasn’t really a challenge.  _ Anyone _ could beat Obito. Even a  _ rock _ could do it for crying out loud! The guy was clumsy enough as it was. But he had to concede that Minato was probably trying to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. He just seriously hoped that Minato-sensei wouldn’t  _ actually _ let her join them. She’d probably be useless anyways, and the last thing he needed was another incompetent person getting in his way.

Still, Kakashi knew that this was a golden opportunity to see a Hiroshi in action. After Obito had said her name, and Minato-sensei clarified she came from a spy-nin clan, he had been intrigued enough to dig up some information. What he found hardly constituted as enough, but then again, clans tended to guard their secrets borderline religiously, spy-nin or not.

Kakashi folded his arms over his chest and he proceeded to watch the match unfold with half lidded eyes. Obito lurched forward and Ame vanished instantly. The Uchiha straightened out and swiveled his head from side to side in confusion. Kakashi snorted when he saw the trick employed by the kid. Of course she’d do something that childish; hiding behind Obito’s back and moving when he moved― What a joke. With a quick flick of her staff Ame knocked Obito’s feet out from beneath him. Before she could end the fight the Uchiha kicked at her, forcing her to backtrack. 

Obito picked himself up, simultaneously throwing a couple of shuriken at the little girl. She parried them with a twirl of her staff. Amazingly none of the sharp star-shaped weapons impaled the wooden device. Ame leapt into the air just as Obito charged her again, landing behind him. But it seemed that the idiot actually  _ could  _ catch onto things, because he turned around and blocked a hard downward-arced blow. Kakashi’s hands flew to his ears when a grating screech resonated with the clash. 

‘ _ What is that?! _ ’ he thought in bewilderment.

Whatever it was didn’t seem to have an effect on Ame, at least not anymore. Obito on the other hand― well with his hands on his ears instead of in front of him to defend himself, he deserved what he got. Ame delivered a sharp jab to his gut before sidestepping him to slam her elbow into his back. Obito collapsed to the ground and stayed down. 

Kakashi softly tutted.

The battle had ended too quickly for him, and while he acknowledged that there was  _ something _ there to her skill, not much had been shown to warrant allowing her to join them. And as he had originally thought before,  _ anyone  _ could take Obito down.

Obito twisted onto his side and gasped. The little girl stretched her hand out and offered it to him. He took it and laid still for a second, a cheeky grin spreading onto his face just before he gave a sharp tug and pulled her down with a yelp.

Kakashi’s shoulders sagged and he rolled his eyes. What a waste. She should have just walked away and let him get up on his own. 

The duo started laughing and he grit his teeth in annoyance. Had this just been a game for them? Training should be taken seriously with only one goal in mind: To show and hone their capability and usefulness. If this was all that would come of letting a  _ kid _ , Hiroshi or not, train with them then he might as well just write her off as useless right now.

He turned to Minato and complained. “Sensei, that wasn’t really an even match.”

Minato-sensei turned his electric blue eyes on Kakashi and smirked. “No I suppose it wasn’t. But you always have to start somewhere before going anywhere, and it’s best to not start off at the hardest level. Rin?”

They both turned to the kunoichi. Rin jumped at being called upon, but settled down immediately, looking dead on at Minato. “Yes, Sensei?”

“Will you please spar with Ame next?” Rin nodded and stepped forward to go tell the two fools on the ground still that it was now her turn. 

The little girl picked herself up, giggling, dragging the curious weapon with her. If Kakashi squinted then he could see little rivulets of something shiny in the wood. Silver? Or, based off the sound it had made when Obito’s kunai glanced off of it, another type of metal? He briefly wondered what the staff was made out of. But his attention was immediately shifted towards Obito getting off the ground, rubbing his head and blushing like the lovestruck moron he was as he talked to Rin. Kakashi took a deep breath and resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. 

‘ _ Come on you moron, move out of the way. _ ’

Rin shooed him off and Obito jogged to stand on the other side of Minato-sensei, wishing both girls luck. Immediately after the two kunoichi moved into a fighting stance, and Minato called for the second match to begin.

His teammate was quick, already using the little knowledge she had gleaned from the last match to her advantage. Rin launched several shuriken and aimed for the tails of the girl’s coat, catching it and dragging her down slightly as it pinned to the ground― much to the child’s annoyance. But she didn’t let it hinder her for long. With the bottom of her staff she easily knocked through the weapons and dislodged them, barely managing to avoid a punch from Rin by moving to the side. Ame bent backwards and lifted her feet up in a flip to clip the older kunoichi on the chin.

Rin rebounded from the stun and pulled out a kunai from her pouch just as Ame made a comeback. The short haired girl raised the small weapon, glancing off the the tip of the staff where there appeared to be a lacrima of some sort. No horrible screeching noises resonated from it so Kakashi made a mental note that it was a safe point to defend from with metal weapons.

For the next couple of minutes back and forth blows were exchanged, and Kakashi began to see that the kid was good with a weapon and taijutsu combined. But it was also starting to get boring. Couldn’t she do something else? Surely if she’s this good with taijutsu then she should at least know some basic ninjutsu, or maybe even a little bit of genjutsu? Or did they not teach those kinds of things in the Hiroshi clan until they were older? If that were the case then it was another waste of potential.

Despite his already low opinion of the kid he found that he was actually  _ itching  _ to fight her, even if it would wind up a short match. Perhaps more than anything he just wanted to put Ame in her place and show her how it was really done. Already he had counted out several times when she could have been disarmed and knocked down and it bugged him to no end that it hadn’t happened yet. In fact, the longer he watched her  _ succeed _ the more an icy anger began to build up within him. A strange and foreign sense of utter destment. It was on a completely different level from the contemptment he held for Obito.

Distracted by his musings Kakashi failed to witness the end of the battle, though the results were fairly obvious. It had ended almost in a draw, with Ame barely managing to claim the status of the victorious. As firmly as possible she held the tip of her staff to Rin’s throat, breathing heavily. 

“Alright I’ve seen enough,” Minato-sensei said, rather pleased sounding with how things turned out. Ame pulled the staff away, again leaning down to help the loser of the match up. Rin was kinder though, and didn’t pull her down, instead opting to use the help to pull herself up. Kakashi stretched out his fingers and held the position for a few seconds before balling them into a tight fist. His shoulder twitched in anticipation of a fight.

However Minato-sensei surprised him by walking forward with a smile on his face. “Ame, how old are you?”

“I’m eight.” Kakashi noticed how she held herself back from asking the oh so obvious question she wanted to ask; only subtly alluding to it by biting the inside of her lip. A soft  _ hmph _ escaped him and he stalked forward with his teacher.

Minato-sensei cocked his head a little to the left. “Eight huh? And do you mind if I ask who your parents are?”

“Kouhei and Ayano.”

At that his sensei nodded, as if everything made perfect sense now. It briefly came to mind that Minato had said something about knowing the head of the clan, whose name was Kouhei. Once again Kakashi’s shoulders sagged as he realized, narrowing his eyes at the child, that Ame was the daughter of the head of the Hiroshi clan. Of course, this kid seemed to have it all, didn’t she?

“If I recall correctly, your clan is trying to become more immersive in training with the Hidden Leaf, right? That’s why you asked if you could join us in training isn’t it.” Minato concluded his observations, ending it more as a statement rather than a question. Kakashi knew, in that moment, where this was going to lead. Stiffly, he folded his arms back over his chest again, a hint of disappointment dripping within him that he most likely wouldn’t get to spar with her today.

‘ _ Heh, spar? More like knock her down to the bottom with Obito. _ ’ He sneered at the child when she wasn’t looking at him―which seemed to be quite frequently, as if she were picking up on his vibes and reading his mind.

“Well, with your impressive performance and that in mind, I don’t have a problem with letting you join us for training. I’m Namikaze Minato.” His sensei stretched out a hand to shake.

‘ _ I have a problem with this. _ ’ He added an extra dose of bitterness to his thoughts, in case the child really was telepathic. 

Ame’s face lit up, completely unfazed by his thoughts and disproving his silly idea, her smile showing off that she still had baby chub to round her face. Obito let loose a raucous cheer and punched the air in delight. Honestly, he didn’t understand why this excited Obito. After all he only knew the girl’s name and a small extent of her skills. 

Kakashi sighed and remained where he was so as to better glare at the girl while Rin and Obito moved in to talk with her. His actions didn’t remain unnoticed by her. She glanced at him briefly, a blank stare practically challenging him in a whirlpool of near mahogany eyes. Ame leaned towards Obito and asked him something, to which he turned around to give Kakashi a disgusted look.

“Him? Aw don’t even bother yourself. He’s a jerk all the time and not even worth fighting,” Obito said loudly. That earned him a sharp rap to the head from Minato. 

Clenching his teeth even tighter, Kakashi forced himself to walk even closer to the group.

“ _ What? _ ” he snapped. Obito rolled his eyes and waved him off. The tiny child continued to stare at him with that stupid blank expression.

He tilted his head down to make it obvious of his mockery. “Were you looking for another match, little kid?” 

A hand gripped his shoulder in warning but he ignored it, watching in satisfaction as a muscle in the kid’s jaw twitched. Her blank eyes filtered with a steely emotion. He’d chuckle, but it was too early to say that he’d won. She wasn’t as predictable as most people were, after all.

Before he could even blink then Kakashi found himself staring at the knotted end of her staff. The lacrima was too cloudy to see a reflection in, and his mind reeled at the close proximity in which the weapon had gotten to his face. He blinked then, marginally surprised at how fast she had moved―exerting decent self-control to stop the weapon just before impact. The staff was lowered just as quickly, though, and Ame stabbed it into the ground next to her, trying her best to not reveal how angered she was. With her childish features it only made it more difficult to take her seriously―not that he had been in the first place.

“Yes I am little and a kid, thank you for pointing out the obvious. No wonder you’re known as a prodigy around here.” A light smirk traced along the edge of Ame’s lips and Kakashi bristled at the statement. The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip and he inhaled deeply. Obito snickered, making the measures he just took almost useless.

“Both of you try to get along, will you?” Minato-sensei sighed as if he’d been doing this for too long. Well, he supposed that the week in training with both him and Obito then the gold-haired man might as well have been. 

He and Ame nodded their heads, but they both knew that there was no promise that they’d even try. 

The pire had been lit with no putting it out now, and with it, a new rivalry burned.

* * *

 

Ame walked into her home, slipping her shoes off at the entrance with a wide grin on her face. Today had been rather fun. Despite the ever rude Hatake Kakashi she had managed to come out of it with a few new methods that would help her train better, as well as earning herself two new friends. The little girl was covered from head to foot in grass and dirt, lathered in sweat, and aching right down to her bones. She couldn’t wait to tell Mama and Papa all about it, and when Rikuro returned from from his mission then he might even get  _ jealous  _ of her.

Her grin turned smug and she happily waltzed through her house. 

The first thing Ame noticed after a moment, though, was that it was unusually quiet. Normally this wouldn’t have bothered her, as that was just how it usually was around here, but this silence gave her the chills. It was like the house itself were trying to hide something. Ame felt that, if she were to call out, the silence would swallow her whole. It was difficult repressing a shudder because of it.

Carefully Ame snuck around, checking the rooms to see if anyone was hiding in them. So far it remained soulless. She had just been passing by Papa’s study when she caught the faint sounds of conversation. Backtracking, Ame leaned against the wall beside the door and willed a tiny bit of chakra to go to her ears and transfigure them into cat ones for better hearing. One tingling sensation later and she felt those fuzzy things twitching atop her head.

“ _ Why do you insist on working with the Leaf Village when they are clearly not winning this battle?” _ That was Oji-san. He sounded angry, hissing in low tones like he was.

Someone―it must have been Papa―sighed heavily. “ _ Ryouta, please I know that right now you are suffering, but you must not let your emotions control you. Working with the Hidden Leaf is our best option. They have the means to win the war, I know it. _ ”

“ _ If they had the means to end the war then they would have finished it before it started. Kouhei, they killed my wife by sending her on a mission they knew there was barely even a margin of success for! My son is now  _ motherless _. What do you have to say to that?! _ ”

Her eyes widened. ‘ _ Kiki-oba is… dead? _ ’

“ _ I’m sorry Ryouta. _ ” Papa’s voice grew quieter and she missed what he said next.

“ _ Sorry doesn’t bring back my wife _ !” Ame trembled against the door as her uncle shouted. Oji-san’s voice had been filled with such a poison that even listening to it was toxic. Slowly, she started backing away from the door, not wanting to hear anymore. It was bad enough that Oba-san was no longer with them on the Near Shore, but listening to Oji-san speak like that somehow made it worse. 

Her chest filled with lead, and she flinched at the tone of his voice. Anger aimed at the Leaf, at Papa for telling their clan to continue working with them. Hatred for the Leaf, who did something so horrible to him and Rikuro. And something even worse.

‘ _ A call for retribution _ .’

Ame shivered, feeling a chill walk through her even though the house was fairly warm. 

Hiroshi Ryouta sounded like he wanted revenge, and that he would get it one way or another.


	6. How to Piss Off a Scarecrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Children and their shenanigans are a delight, even if a certain sourpuss doesn't agree.

“Ame don’t do that. You’re just going to make it worse.” Rin slapped Ame’s hand away from her mouth before returning to the task of getting some medical thing or other out of her bag. As soon as she turned away the small hand flew right back to its old position, tugging at the corners of her bottom lip. Even though it hurt to do it just because there were a few splits in it, she couldn’t stop herself! It was a habit she had developed whenever she thought something over.

“Obviously she doesn’t care about the state of her lips so don’t even bother Rin.” Kakashi stalked past them, turning his nose to the air when Ame shot him a glare.

It was his fault her lips were split in the first place! The jerk had punched her on “accident” while Minato-sensei wasn’t looking. It was obvious that Kakashi was still mad that the little girl had usurped him the other day, and even more so about the prodigy comment she’d made. 

‘ _ He acts more like a kid than I do! _ ’ Ame thought angrily while burning holes into Kakashi’s retreating back.

Rin smacked her hand away from her mouth again and quickly sprayed the girl with something that stung like a raging wasp. She then shoved something soft into Ame’s mouth and told her to bite down and hold onto it for a few minutes. A shadow fell over Ame, and Obito flopped onto the ground beside her, tucking his arms under his head while grinning.

“After this do you wanna go hit some place to eat? I’ll pay!” 

Ame would've smiled if it weren’t for the wad of softness sticking out of her mouth and the pain it caused to her lips, so instead she nodded happily. 

“And you Rin?” The Uchiha perked up hopefully, even sitting up a little to observe her reaction. Ame had to stifle a snicker. His crush on the kunoichi could be so amusing sometimes.

She smiled apologetically at him. “Sorry Obito. I have to go to the hospital after training to submit some papers for an internship.”

Obito sat upright and asked the same question that Ame had been thinking. “Huh?”

“Aside from regular combat training, I’m also training to use medical ninjutsu. What with you guys always getting hurt you’ll need it!” At that she whipped out a bandage and slapped it onto Obito’s hand, which Ame then noticed he had been trying to hide. He yelped and Rin began to lecture him about different treatments to help keep it from getting infected. When she had finished with that, the kunoichi turned to Ame and told her it was okay to take out the cotton wrap―and to try to leave her lips alone so they could heal properly! Afterwards Rin left to check up on Kakashi and Minato-sensei.

Obito rubbed his hand gently, blushing hard. Small lips curled upwards as the young girl tried to find a way to smile without feeling like she going to rip her mouth open again. Obito noticed the struggle and his face turned a darker shade of red as he scowled.

Not understanding why he was making such a face, Ame tried to lighten the mood by giggling playfully, leaning over to poke his cheek. “You like her a lot, don’t you?” 

He denied her access by leaning away, sputtering about how she couldn’t be further from the truth, only giving her the answer through his denial. Ame laughed, only to suddenly wince as she felt a painful tug on her burning lips. The raven haired boy turned away, letting his dark eyes land on Kakashi.

“That guy’s got a lot of nerve,” he muttered. “I oughta put him in his place.”

Ame deadpanned, knowing just as well as he did that at his current level there was no way he was going to beat the silver haired prodigy anytime soon. He purposefully chose to ignore the look she gave him. 

“We shouldn’t actually fight him,” Ame sighed, standing up and offering a hand to help him up. “It’s just not a good idea all around. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pull pranks or just outright annoy him.”

Obito gave the small girl a quizzical stare, taking the extended hand and pulled himself up. She winked and tossed her head over her shoulder. “Watch and learn. I do this all the time to my cousin and it’s absolutely hilarious!”

Turning around, Ame skipped over to the trio―which consisted of Minato-sensei, Kakashi, and Rin. The young kunoichi and shinobi didn’t give the little girl more than a second glance, assuming that she was just coming to listen in on the conversation, as per usual, but Kakashi gave her a suspicious glare as she edged her way closer to him. Ame relaxed and acted as if she wasn’t going to do anything, occasionally sneaking glances at him from the corner of her eye, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Slowly, Ame scooted just a fraction closer to him, bit by bit. He never appeared to suspect a thing. She put her right hand on her waist―still no reaction. Continuing with the steady pace, the child moved her hand until it was about even with his side, right before jabbing into it; light enough that it wouldn’t hurt, but sharp enough that it would definitely elicit a reaction. Her hand flew back to her waist so fast, almost as if it had never left.

Kakashi jerked to the side and Ame swallowed the laughter bubbling within to silence it. Looking back at Obito nearly made her efforts a complete waste of time. He hid his grin behind his hand, closing his eyes as his shoulders shook with silent laughter. Minato and Rin gave Kakashi a strange look―to which he glowered at her, a trace of pink forming under his eyes. Her lips uncurled, forcefully pressed into a straight line.

‘ _ No gloating smile until the end _ ,’ she reminded herself. 

Kakashi shuffled back into place, tense. It was apparent that he was already wary of her, so she needed start timing her attacks for the right moment. As soon as she was certain his attention was back on Minato-sensei then she struck again.

Ame snickered as he twitched this time, only flinching to the side instead of fully spazzing out. He glared at her for an incredibly long time. The child remained staring at Minato-sensei, who was starting to send her quizzical glances between words. Obito struggled to keep himself quiet, drawing nearer to the comical scene playing before him. Now that Kakashi was undoubtedly fully and completely aware of what she was doing then getting in another hit was going to be difficult―but for the sake of amusement (and revenge) she had to try!

_ ‘Slowly… Sloooowwllly… Now!’ _

Kakashi grabbed her wrist just as she tried to pull away, his eyes narrowing and flashing with a sharp, clear anger. He hissed, gripping her wrist tightly. “Stop that!”

A grin stretched across her face― _ oh so painfully _ ―and her shoulders shook uncontrollably. With a slightly high pitched, strangled voice she said, “Nope!”, just before tugging herself free and sprinted over to Obito so they could laugh our heads off or run away together―or possibly both, whichever came first. Loud laughter and giggling soon followed after them in their wake and they both collapsed to the ground in a fit of amusement.

“See Obito?” Ame chirped between gasps for air. “Confuse, don’t abuse! It works best every time.”

“We should start planning then!” Obito rolled onto his back with a huge grin on his face. “Call it ‘Operation Annoy Scarecrow!’.”

Ame pumped her fist in the air with a delighted cheer. “Alright!”

* * *

 

“Alright, that’s enough training for today, good work everyone.” Minato-sensei straightened out, nodding his head in approval to everyone. Obito punched the air and both him and his younger companion turned to high five each other. 

“That was awesome! How did you do that thing where you twisted around Minato-sensei, because that was a really cool move!” They began to walk away from the training field, waving good-bye to the blonde jōnin. The sun was already inching towards the opposing horizon and the birds had started returning to their nests as a sign of the end of the day.

“It’s a fighting technique that I modeled after cats when they fall. You know how they somehow always twist themselves around so that they land on their feet? It’s because of their tails. They’re good for more than just balance and sending signals you know―that’s why they’re so important.” Ame waved her little hands in twisting gestures to try and explain to Obito something that she had only just recently come up with.

Kakashi bumped into her as he passed by, sneering, “Yes but you don’t have a tail, so your explanation doesn’t make any sense.”

She scowled at him but chose to continue explaining to Obito the point she was trying to get at. “Since I _obviously_ don’t have a tail, I needed to substitute it with something so I shift the air currents just a little in order to twist around. For that I just used Akuma.”

“Oh so that’s why you had your staff behind you!” Rin popped up on Obito’s other side with amazement glittering in her chocolate colored eyes. “That’s pretty clever, how did you come up with the idea?”

At that the child clammed up in embarrassment. Unfortunately Kakashi was sharp, and proposed an answer in her place. Sometimes he was just  _ too _ sharp.

“If she based it off of cats when they fall then that means she figured it out when she was falling. No doubt after making some clumsy mistake.”

“Hey, accidents can bring pretty great discoveries, so really,” Obito leaned in front of her, holding up a finger with that happy-go-lucky grin of his, “the mistake was a success!”

If it weren’t for him then Ame probably would have throttled Kakashi by now. ‘ _God bless you, Uchiha Obito._ _In friendship we find a common enemy and can work together to defeat him!_ ’

Turning her mind away from possible death-of-Kakashi scenarios, Ame looked to the trees where the birds were settling in. She spotted a particularly large nest in one of them, and, with a grin, she left the group of genin and bounded over to stare up the nest. Three little semi-bald heads popped out of the twiggy little home and chirped loudly for food. Ame watched them in delight, some of it  _ maybe  _ a little predatory. Okay so it was a little bit more than some but when she transformed into a cat then some of the  _ natural _ instincts just didn’t go away all the time, lingering like strangers in a partially open doorway.

Obito jogged over to her side and joined her in staring up the tree. “Wanna get a closer look?”

She turned to him with an excited grin. “Really?”

In response, the Uchiha got down on one knee and laced his hands together to form a little bowl. Ame placed her foot in the step contraption and he hoisted her up easily to the lowest branch. Scrambling, the child pulled herself up and reached for the next branch to take a peek at the baby chicks. They started to squawk at her as soon as her round face popped over the edge of their nest and she delightedly made chirping noises back.

And then a brilliant idea struck her.

Ame turned and hopped down from the tree, tugging on Obito’s arm so as to better whisper in his ear. He nodded his head at the idea and they raced back over to Rin and Kakashi, who were almost clear of the training field. Once the conniving duo were in range they struck up a rather peculiar conversation.

“ _ Peep peep? _ ” The young girl casted a long glance at Kakashi, who had yet to really start paying attention to them.

“ _ Peep peep. _ ” Obito responded almost completely naturally. He couldn’t exactly stop himself from grinning at her, but then again this was one of the most brilliant ideas she had ever had so far.

Suppressing a giggle, Ame snuck up behind Kakashi and then squawked loudly. “ _ Caw! _ ”

The silver haired boy whirled around, her bird sound actually pretty convincing. She jumped back as soon as he realized it was just her and he scowled before turning around again. Obito leaned in towards the small with one hand up like a gossiping lady, and she followed suit with a mischievous little laugh. 

They spoke of nothing  _ but _ serious business.

“ _ Peep peep peep? _ ”

“ _ Peep.” _

“ _ Peep peep. Peep peep peeeeep! _ ”

They snickered as they watched Kakashi’s back go rigid. Any second now he was gonna turn around and get mad at them.

“ _ Caw, Scarecrow, caw! _ ”

“Will. You. Stop. That?!” Kakashi spun around again and stormed up to the plotting duo. They backed up, laughing. He was always so funny when he got angry! For someone who usually had a passive expression to hide his emotions, he was not all that great at concealing some of them, or controlling them either.  Ame suspected the young prodigy wasn’t used to teasing, otherwise he would have been handling things a lot better. Guess there  _ were _ some things prodigies aren’t good at.

“ _ Peep? _ ”

“ _ Peep. _ ”

“Quit acting like kids! What are you guys even saying anyways?” Kakashi in that moment revealed two things to Ame. One was that he clearly didn’t realize that he was just a kid too. And the other was that, because he seemed to be in denial, he also didn’t realize that he was acting like a kid by asking with what she interpreted as annoyed curiosity about hers and Obito’s shenanigans.

The child cleared her throat in a professional manner and broke the bird talk talk for but a second. For once she was glad that her odd love of brain teasers got a chance to shine through. “Figure out what I’m doing and then we’ll let you join our club.”

Sensing what Obito was thinking, and before he could protest, Ame placed a hand on his shoulder, but did not break eye contact with Kakashi. He must have received the message, realizing that she was just adding more to the fun, and decided to wait for her to explain it to him later. After all, the best surprises were often the ones where no one knew a thing about the plan, even the planner!

Kakashi sighed in exasperation, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. “I don’t have time for this.”

She loved it when people said that, because it just meant that, even if they didn’t want to, they were gonna stay and listen anyways. Even if they happened to be a rude and insensitive person like Kakashi. It also meant that she got to have even more fun. Once again the child cleared her throat.

“ _ Peep peep peep peep peep. _

_ Peep peep peep peep peep peep peep. _

_ Peep peep peep peep peep. _ ”

His shoulders sagged and the child was graced with his infamous withering glare. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Come on, oh smart one. If you wanna know what it is I’m saying then figure it out!” Ame grabbed Obito’s hand with maniacally gleeful laugh and the two of them dashed out of the training field like thieves robbing in the night.

* * *

 

“Hurry up and put it in there so I can fill the rest of the jar up!” She whispered, gesturing for Obito to stick the headband in the half full jar of dirt. The boy dropped it in there as commanded with a  wicked grin and helped the child shovel in handfuls of dirt in it until the jar was almost completely full. When the task was complete he screwed the lid on and Ame picked it up. They ran out of the forest a short distance away from where Kakashi was methodically, irritatedly, pacing around Rin and Minato-sensei.

* * *

 

Kakashi wasn’t sure when he lost track of his headband, or even  _ how _ . Maybe because it was almost always on his head he managed to ignore it, but now that it  _ wasn’t _ there the absence was very hard to ignore. One thing he did know, without a single doubt in his mind, was that it  _ had  _ to have something to do with Obito and that brat Ame.

“Sensei, are you  _ sure _ you haven’t seen my headband?” he asked somewhat desperately, probably for what seemed like the millionth time as well. Minato shook his head and Rin piped in saying she hadn’t seen it either, before he could ask. He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath through his nose. His jaw clenched and slowly he started to grind his teeth together, resisting the urge to growl. 

“Oh there they are,” Minato-sensei said before calling out to the people behind him. “You two are late!”

Kakashi spun around and glared at Obito and Ame, who weren’t even bothering to hide their snickers, also not daring to move from their spot about a half a yard away from them. Kakashi’s heated gaze honed in on the big jar filled with dirt that Ame cradled in her small arms. Confused, his head tilted to the side and squinted.

“Hey Kakashi, are you missing something?” Obito jeered at him. His body went rigid, the circle of information magically connecting itself within his mind.

‘ _ I knew it!’  _ he internally screeched, totally on the verge of losing his cool.

“Where’s my headband?” Though the answer was already obvious, Kakashi tried to remain calm and go about things in a cool, logical manner, though letting a razor tinged edge seep into his voice in warning. Ame pranced away with an annoying smirk on her face, her long dark hair swishing around her, holding up a jar and shaking it while singing some weird song with her childishly high pitched voice grating on his ears.

“ _ I’ve got a jar of dirt~ _

_ I’ve got a jar of dirt~ _

_ And you can’t guess what’s inside it!~ _ ”

Kakashi resisted the urge to grip his face with both hands and scream. Every day.  _ Every day  _ they found a different way to torture him and he was so _ done  _ with it! It was about time that he put an end to this nonsense once and for all!

He barely registered Minato-sensei and Rin’s sighs, as if they were simultaneously saying, “ _ Not again _ .” The Scarecrow leaned forward and sprinted towards the annoying duo. Ame shrieked at the thrill of the chase and ran back into the forest with her partner in crime. With a hiss in frustration Kakashi turned sharply and ran at an angle through the woods to cut them off. 

Of course he was faster than them, and he had much better control over his chakra that he could use the trees to his advantage way more than they ever could, so it was easy business catching up to them. 

It was just when they started playing monkey in the middle that he began to have a harder time.

Finally, after enduring the charade for long enough, Kakashi reached behind him and pulled out is tantō. As the jar sailed over him he leaped into the air and slashed through the jar, sending a rain of class and sand down upon him. Shielding his eyes he hurriedly looked for his headband. Suddenly there was a small hand on his shoulder and he jumped in surprise as Ame used him as a base board to propel herself into the air. The moment seemed to suspended itself in slow motion as he watched her propel upwards. It struck him as a little strange at how similarly she looked like a cat. 

The moment quickly ended as she swiped his headband out of the air, tucking and rolling back to the ground. 

She popped up again seconds later waving his headband victoriously while sticking her tongue out at him. Kakashi scowled and held out his hand, sheathing his tantō. “Give it back.”

Ame tilted her head to look back at Obito. “Shouldn’t there be a please in there somewhere?”

“Uh,  _ yeah _ ! He doesn’t deserve anything if he can’t ask nicely.” 

Kakashi’s non-waiting hand began curling and he stretched his fingers out in stiff agitation. He could just as easily get it back by force if he had to. His pride would prefer that he go that way, but… Oh for hell’s sake he couldn’t believe he was  _ actually _ doing this.

“Please give me my headband back.”

Ame thought about it for a moment before stepping forward to hand the desired object over to him. He grabbed it, ready to reclaim what was rightfully his, only to find that the kid was doing something ridiculous  _ yet again _ . He stared at her long and hard, trying to silently communicate that she had exactly three seconds to let go of the headband before he made her. In response a cheshire grin sprawled along Ame’s face.

‘ _ That’s it _ ,’ he growled to himself.

Kakashi struck, wrapping her arm around herself and picking her up so she was expertly tucked under his arm. None of them even  _ had _ the time to be screwing around here, and if she wouldn’t give it to him now then he would take her to Minato-sensei where he would  _ make _ her. Ame gasped and and squirmed around in his grasp, but he pinned her tighter to his side and then promptly ignored her.

“Hey! Let her go!” A tired breath whistled between his teeth as Obito the Fool charged him in a pathetically rushed rescue attempt. Kakashi raised his hand and chopped down on the Uchiha’s head. The boy went down, and as he did so Kakashi grabbed the collar of his navy shirt, dragging the duo out of the forest. Minato-sensei caught sight of them in no time and waved them over to hand out punishments to the two little trouble makers. 

Kakashi almost dragged them over with a skip in his step. 

_ One lecture later: _

“Now give Kakashi his headband back so we can start training,” Minato-sensei sighed. Ame turned around on her knees and offered the headband again, avoiding the chore of looking up at him, instead opting to give the ground a sullen stare. Kakashi snatched it out of her hand and quickly made sure it was tightly tied around his head, not caring one bit about the dirt all over it. Minato-sensei jerked his thumb over his shoulder and both Ame and Obito stood dejectedly up to go practice chakra control. Kakashi smirked and turned to head towards the more open part of the field to do some  _ real  _ training with Minato-sensei and Rin.

“Hold on Kakashi.” He turned around to give Minato a look of confusion. The matter had been resolved so they should have been getting on with their training now, shouldn’t they?

“You aren’t any less to blame for this matter than they are.” Oh no. “The fact that you keep giving them a reason to be pulling these pranks that delay training means that you need to go over  _ there  _ with  _ them. _ ”

Minato-sensei nodded his head behind him and gestured for Kakashi to go join the duo.

‘ _ Dammit! _ ’

“Yes sensei.” Kakashi nodded his head stiffly and walked over to the trees where Obito and Ame were building up their chakra. Obito glanced over to see what he could possibly be doing, and once he realized that Kakashi was  _ joining them _ a lopsided grin crowned his face.

“ _ Ha! _ You got into trouble too? Amazing I didn’t think you were capable of such a feat.” Obito snickered loudly, but pretended to be discreet by hiding it behind his hand.

“Shut up Obito,” he muttered before casting a glare Ame’s way, then he turned his focus onto the training. 

With every fiber of resentment he could muster, Kakashi wished that Minato-sensei had never let the annoying kid join them.


	7. A Shining Red Eye

Rikuro was due to return from his mission by the end of the day, and it had left Ame in a great state of worry. She couldn’t be certain how he would react to the news of his mother. The only thing she could say that she did know was that Ryouta-oji was doing even worse than before. He’d deteriorated into less of the man that Papa often described him as and more of a… well… a drunkard. With Rikuro already showing signs of taking after his father’s mannerisms then things didn’t look good, though Ame didn’t think her cousin could take up drinking since he was just eleven.

A bad feeling was wearing her down, and as a result her lips took most of the abuse.

“Hey, what’s got you down?” Obito plopped onto the ground beside Ame, crossing his legs and giving her an earnest look in a way that told her he was totally willing to listen to any of her problems. Immediately her hand flew away from her little mouth, knowing that it was what had given her away (along with the fact that both him and Rin were trying to get her to stop picking at her lips). She looked down at her lap and watched the wind gently tug at the folds of her smokey shirt.

With a sigh she finally said, “My cousin is coming back from his mission today.”

“What’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t that be something that gets you all excited?” 

Ame didn’t respond right away. Ever since she had overheard that conversation between her uncle and Papa she had done her best to not think about her late aunt or the implications of her death. It gave her unnatural chills, and it only seemed to worsen whenever she thought about Rikuro. If Ryouta-oji took the news so badly, to the point where he considered some kind of  _ rebellion _ , then who knew how much it would damage her cousin?

She shifted uncomfortably, her hand itching to go back to picking at her lip. “He doesn’t know that his mom, Kiki oba-san, is…”

The word ‘dead’ became stuck in her throat like the pit of a cherry would sometimes do if she wasn’t careful while eating the fruit. The urge to give into her habit broke her will to not, and Ame guiltily returned to destroying her bottom lip. Obito remained silent.

Both children knew that death was a repercussion of war. Ame had never heard of a single war in the history of shinobi that hadn’t resulted in death, mass or otherwise. But it was still harsh; a rude awakening. 

The moment of their mutually shared silence dragged on for a long time, until they heard Minato-sensei calling for them to come back in order to start their next round of training. They slowly stood up, Obito reaching over to give the little girl’s shoulder a pat. Ame looked at him, uncertainty swelling within her chest. His onyx eyes softened, a light hearted grin morphing his features into something resembling reassurance. 

“Tell him he can come hang out with us if he wants to. Grieving alone isn’t the best option for some people, and if you’re worried about him it’ll be better for him to be where you can keep an eye on him, right? Besides, I know a thing or two about cheering people up.” Obito winked with a little grin. The despairing compression in her chest melted away as gratitude replaced it. A small smile caressed her cheeks and she stood on her little tiptoes to wrap her arms around Obito’s neck, squeezing tightly in thanks.

He chuckled. “You’re so short!”

Ame puffed out her cheeks and scowled at the sky. “Thanks, Captain Obvious.”

At that he laughed, bending a little lower to scoop her up. A squeak escaped the child and she struggled around in his grasp until she was comfortably settled on his back instead. He wrapped his arms underneath her knees, and with a happy holler began running towards Minato-sensei.

* * *

 

_ Day 1: Rikuro Officially Meets Team Minato _

Obito was surprised to see Ame with the same boy from the time when the two had re-encountered each other again for the first time in two years. From the way it appeared, though, Rikuro had been forced to join the training session today by his vivacious and younger cousin, rather than gently persuaded. 

The dark haired boy didn’t particularly look any different, probably having mastered that dumb rule about not showing emotion. However Obito took note of the dark circles that ringed under the Hiroshi boy’s eyes, and of the slight red tinge that clung to the lips of his lids. Knowing that it was hard to lose someone that had been close to you, especially a mother, Obito decided to take it upon himself to keep a close eye on this boy, and just maybe try to befriend him.

“This is my cousin Rikuro,” Ame said, trying to place some enthusiasm into the air. “Rikuro, this is Minato-sensei, Rin, Obito, and a jerk.”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, a low growl emitting from beneath his navy mask. Sensei cleared his throat reproachfully, and the little girl rolled her dark eyes before correcting herself. “I meant Kakashi.”

After the introduction was properly completed everyone offered a hand to Rikuro. Obito found it highly surprising that the anti-social jerk known as Kakashi could actually do something like be cordial. Normally he’d be an ass about things, especially when it involved death, acting like some sort of superior and seasoned shinobi. Instead the silver haired genin was offering his hand like the rest of them and nodding his head. He treated it more like a business transaction, but still… Strange.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Rikuro said softly. “Ame regards most of you highly.”

Obito snickered, casting a sideways glance at Kakashi, who notably stiffened. The raven haired boy felt a hand on his shoulder squeezing lightly in warning and he turned his head behind him to see Minato-sensei, who remained staring at Rikuro with a pleasant sort of smile.

“It’s good to have you here Rikuro. We’ve heard a lot about you from Ame as well.”

Rikuro partially turned to his cousin, tilting his head so he could properly look down at her. A trace of life sparked in his stone cold obsidian eyes, a ghost of a smile cracking along his pale face. Absently, he reached a hand up to pat her head. Obito grinned, relaxing. It looked like there was still hope there to help the guy get feeling better after all.

* * *

 

_ Day 5 _

Rin was beginning to wonder if, somewhere, there was a medical jutsu that could help mend a broken heart. She knew that time was usually always the best answer to cases such as death, but it seemed that, as more time passed, the more despondent Ame’s cousin became. And the more despondent he became the more it affected their training. Most specifically Ame’s performance.

Between Ame and Obito they made up the life of the team. What with their antics in annoying Kakashi―some she would admit were rather hilarious in a harmless way―and their constant plotting of jokes, or just their strange sense of humor all around, it was difficult not to feel energized along with them. It wasn’t hard to tell that the two were close friends; possibly thick as thieves. If Rin hadn’t known any better then she would have said that they had been friends almost all their lives with the way they got along, but Ame had only been training with them for about a month. 

But with the little girl’s cousin being here  _ and  _ grieving the loss of his mother then it really placed a negative impact on the spirited kid. Between both Hiroshi’s they’ve found themselves covered in more than enough cuts and bruises to last them a whole year’s worth. The despondency and distraction were causing a disruption in the levels of success their training had, and often Minato-sensei was reprimanding them for simple blunders, though not as sternly as he normally would. 

The mood of a single person was turning the majority of their team dysfunctional, as even Obito was beginning to succumb to the weight of a low spirit. 

Rin sighed as she put more bandages onto the trio. This was yet another reason to be glad that the hospital had accepted her application of internship, because now it looked like her team was really going to need her medical abilities.

* * *

 

_ End of Week 1 _

Ame chewed on the inside of her lip, debating. 

This week of training had definitely been not gone as well as she had hoped it would. She had thought Rikuro would rebound into his normal routine at least just a little, go back to being a half cocky jerk, but no. It seemed that physical activity was doing him about the same amount of good as being locked up in his room―a.k.a zilch. 

Drastic times called for fluffy measures.

“Alright that’s it!” Everyone turned to look at the child, stunned by her rather sudden outburst. She stared at each of them in turn with a dare for them to question her, although she spared a hard glare at Kakashi in particular, knowing he’d only give her trouble no matter what she said or did.

“What’s the problem?” Obito asked curiously, following her current gaze, which was locked onto her cousin. Little hands automatically flew to her hips as she cocked to the side, determination burning within her as she stared him down. Rikuro began fidgeting, knowing full well that Ame was preparing to force him into doing something yet again.

“So obviously training isn’t what’s gonna help you out, since it sure isn’t doing you jack squat right now.” Rikuro looked away at her words with a shrug. A frown creased along the child’s face and she stepped forward with even more fire in her eyes. “What you need is some serious fluff intervention. When’s the last time you even summoned Torio? I bet he’s gone mad because he hasn’t seen you since you got back from your mission.”

Rikuro’s expression changed from bewildered to guilty like a bolt of lightning flashing across the sky. He looked down, having found a sudden interest in his shoes. 

‘ _ Even for being as plain as daylight it seems that he’s not gonna get the message without a demonstration. I hate his stubbornness sometimes. _ ’

Ame bit her thumb and proceeded to do the customary rapid hand signs for a summoning before slamming her hand down on the ground. There came a puff of smoke and the child fell back, winded from the release of chakra. Akimitsu blinked before shaking his head and sneezing. 

“A summons? Cool! When were you going to tell me you could do something so high level?!” Obito jumped from shock to wonder to mock outrage all in one breath. Ame giggled and pulled Akimitsu into her lap, scratching behind his fuzzy ears. The raven haired Uchiha crouched onto his hands and knees in an attempt to pet the summons. Akimitsu found himself once again torn between wanting all the loves and not liking being touched by someone he didn’t know. 

With a pointed look at Rikuro he finally caught onto her idea.

There came another puff and the next thing any of them knew Rikuro was tackled by a  _ very  _ large, grey house cat. 

“Dummy! Do you know how worried I’ve been about you because you hadn’t summoned me for a whole  _ week?! _ The least you could have done was let me know you were okay you big jerk of a human! I had to go find out from Himeko what was wrong with you and let me tell you, she may be smaller but she scares the hell out of me! I’m expecting lots of compensation for this starting right now!”

Torio―a grey tortoise shell tomcat with a thick coat―began to fiercely and affectionately rub into Rikuro’s cheek. The cat continued to rant and rave, getting louder as he started fighting to be heard over his own purring. Ame grinned, feeling that her original mission was well on its way to finally being accomplished. Soon Torio started licking Rikuro and it became a struggle between the two. Eventually it drew a laugh from her cousin, a long, happy sound, and he launched into a profuse apology session with his first and favorite summons.

‘ _ I knew it was a good move to bring in the cats. Operation Fluff Intervention: Success! _ ’

“No wonder you two reeked of cats.” Ame twitched upon hearing the muttered comment and she narrowed her eyes at him in a scowl worthy of striking fear into a man’s soul for being a jerk at this particular moment in time. Akimitsu stiffened, his soft ear flicking in the Scarecrow’s direction. Slowly, her gentle friend turned his head to fix Kakashi with his golden eyes and Ame already heard an argument coming on the nearby horizon.

“W-well you smell like a filthy dog,” Akimitsu stuttered. His fur fluffed a little and his back slowly rose in an arch. The child tried to smooth his fur and calm him down by petting him some more, success finding its way to a new low as her summons ignored her.

‘ _ Now’s really not the time for you to be picking fights Akimitsu! _ ’ she thought as Kakashi glared at him, causing Akimitsu to stand up, arching his back to try and appear more frightening. 

Two things: One, Akimitsu was not a fighting cat, he was a messenger for a reason. Two, the way this conversation, or lack thereof, was going, then a fight seemed imminent.

“Hey Ame,” Rin quickly intervened, drawing the attention onto her. “How did you know summoning his cat would make Rikuro feel better?”

Ame swallowed before answering quickly, since Rikuro’s attention―now  _ much  _ more lively, thank goodness―was on her. Almost a bit nervously, she said, “I read in a book once that cats are great at helping with depression and reducing stress.”

That was based on a memory that she was relatively certain  _ wasn’t _ hers. Though Ame liked reading she hadn’t done much of it lately, and to read books about cats had never even crossed her mind. And if anyone in her family knew or suspected that she was still remembering things that weren’t hers…

She repressed a shudder. Another visit to Inoichi, though a nice man, was the last thing Ame wanted or needed right now.

“Yeah, well, so can a dog. Cats aren’t anything special,” Kakashi scoffed, turning his back on the group. Ame started chewing on the inside of her lip again, debating on whether it would be worth it or not to launch herself at him and claw him to shreds. 

‘ _ Stupid Scarecrow, why can’t you just drop it already?! _ ’ 

The sudden stiffening of Minato-sensei and Rin told her that she should  _ not  _ go for the attack, and a glance specifically at Minato-sensei spelled warning. But looking back at Kakashi’s holier-than-thou expression as he looked over his shoulder wiped away any doubt in her mind. 

‘ _ I’ll pay the consequences later so long as I get in a few good blows to this jerk! _ ’ she thought vehemently as she shooed her cat away and grabbed Akuma, leaping up to point the end with the lacrima at Kakashi’s face. 

“En guarde!”

The battle commenced as Kakashi whipped around to face her, and Minato-sensei let out the most defeated sigh in the history of defeated sighs. Obito and Akimitsu were up and cheering for the little girl’s victory, while in her cousin’s come back to normality he decided to resurrect his sarcasm. 

“Don’t get squashed, you bug!”

“Shut up, Richi-chan!” she yelled back, diving forward to drive the point of her staff into one of Kakashi’s weak spots, which he defended against almost effortlessly.

Kakashi started off with taijutsu, since the child hadn’t really allowed him the time or luxury to pull out any weapons. Ame thrust Akuma forward, up, down, and from the side. He blocked them all despite starting a fresh battle so suddenly. It was a good thing that Ame knew first hand just how badly the boy’s forearms were going to be bruised to make up for it, even with those metal platings on his outfit there was no way to escape blunt damage. With another hit she finally managed to force him to use that blasted substitution jutsu―a personal, and annoying, favorite of his.

He completely disappeared, and Ame knew that visual sensory wasn’t going to be her friend in this particular moment. Closing her eyes, the child paid strict attention to the sounds and vibrations of the world around her. The wind yielded nothing through scent or general shifts. The ground, however, betrayed that which it hid. There came a rumbling of many things coming towards the surface. Ame lept away, snapping her eyes wide open.

Not a second too soon. The ground erupted with the baying of hounds―ninken to be exact. Kakashi’s summons were many, but they were not far from just being mere puppies. Still, even at this stage they were pretty well trained. But with this many summons that meant the Scarecrow himself couldn’t be too far off. Even he wasn’t so skilled that he could fight long distance while using up so much chakra on these ninken.

A small dog wearing a blue vest dived in close and tried to nip Ame’s ankles, this one resembling a type of pug. Didn’t Kakashi call this one Pakkun? She shook her head―the dog’s name didn’t matter, especially since she was simply going to dance around all of them anyways. It brought her right to the edge of the hole where the dogs had originated from. 

It was also the moment that, when she reached the edge, she knew she had lost this fight. 

Kakashi sprung into the air, the sunlight wrapping him in a blinding halo. He pulled out his tantō―a weapon he mostly used to finish a battle―and launched into a hard downward assault. It was a miracle that she just barely managed to raise Akuma in time. His speed was incredible, that Ame would grudgingly admit to.

The collision of the weapons was jarring enough that she felt the ground crumbling beneath her. Her whole body echoed and reverberated from the force of the hit while her little ears rang from the sound of the blade clashing with the metal-wood of Akuma. The image of a white streak burned its way into her retinas.

_ ‘Hakkō Chakura To…’ _

Ame blinked and found Kakashi’s fierce gaze leveled with her own. His ebony eyes captured and enraptured her, a storm within them. That was all it took to trigger the flash of memory.

This was a Kakashi fresh from some kind of battle. He was covered in dirt and breathing hard. His mask was torn, and so was his face. There was a deep gash running along his left eye, which was closed tightly. Ame had never seen much emotion on Kakashi’s face unless it was some form of anger or annoyance, but this―this was something she never really thought Kakashi would be capable of feeling. 

Sorrow.

He had just lost someone incredibly important to him. It seemed amazing that there ever could be such a person like that considering that the silver haired prodigy treated everyone like dirt.

A twinge ran through her chest and she clutched it in pain, though her focus remained riveted on the still unfolding scene.

He opened his left eye, a pool of tears gathering at the edge and spilling out. 

_ Her vision started to distort like water filling inside of a glass cup. _

There was something wrong though! There was something completely wrong with Kakashi’s eye! 

_ The water didn’t creep along, it rushed, flooding until it swallowed her little head underneath it.  _

It was shining… Shining red…

She was completely submerged now. 

_ ‘The seatbelt isn’t unbuckling! Why won’t it fucking unbuckle?! Somebody! Somebody help me!’ _

The water came in through the vents and the cracks in the windows. Ame had never known terror to such a level, and yet it seemed to be the exact one she was constantly reliving. There wasn’t any air left; the water stole it all from her lungs, squeezing every bit out and yet bursting within her at the seams. Her heart cried out in pain. Unable to do its job properly, it shut down with a shudder. The black encroached upon Ame’s vision with looming threats to leave her there with no way of ever finding a light to lead her out ever again. 

Even with no air left, she screamed.

* * *

 

Kakashi knew he had won the moment his tantō made impact with that dumb staff she had named Akuma. He couldn’t understand the reasoning behind that. Why name a weapon something other than its classified name? It was stupid and utterly childish in his opinion.

Ame blinked the blindness from the light away and she stared up at him with wide eyes. He pushed down harder and the child shook under the pressure. 

And then he noticed it―the way her eyes began to change like paper fans opening. They revealed an almost sapphire color. Surprised, he pushed her away, thinking that somehow, and for some reason, she had a visual genjutsu.

_ ‘I thought she didn’t know any genjutsu though?! Has she failed to mention this, or has she been purposefully lying?’ _

He held two of his fingers up and allowed a disruption to occur within his chakra to dispel the genjutsu, if there had even been one employed at all. Finding that he was still very much grounded in reality, Kakashi returned his focus to the kid on the ground. She had curled in on her side, eyes squeezed shut, with hands clawing desperately at her throat. The noises coming from her were disturbing; choking. He narrowed his eyes a fraction in concern, uncertain if this was just a trick or not to get him to lower his guard. 

_ ‘What the hell…?’ _

“Ame!” Kakashi’s head snapped around in the direction of the cousin, who had stood up abruptly, throwing the large cat off of him to run towards the little girl. He noted in confusion as well as curiosity that the reaction provided by Rikuro said that he knew  _ exactly  _ what was going on. The dark haired boy was at his cousin’s side in an instant, torn between pounding on her back and giving proper first aid.

Everyone converged upon them immediately.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Rin asked, trying to maintain a semblance of protocol as she pushed her way forward. The kunoichi gently moved Rikuro away and laid the choking girl on her back. “Back up! I need space here!”

Rikuro grabbed a fistful of his hair, a wild frenzy taking control of him. It didn’t fail to escape Kakashi’s notice that a change was occurring within the Hiroshi boy’s eyes too, though much subtler. They were turning greyer, icy with fear. 

“She’s got water in her lungs!”

“ _ What? _ ” That took him by surprise, as well as pretty much everyone else. Rin’s brow furrowed and she placed her hands just above the child’s sternum, locking her elbows and straightening herself out. Then she immediately began a quick set of compressions. Thirty, two breaths, thirty, two breaths. The pattern continued on and even he began to feel antsy. 

Then Ame jolted, choking up water. They turned her on her side so she could dispel the rest of it from her system. Obito lifted up his goggles and furiously rubbed at his eyes. Under different circumstances Kakashi would have mocked the Uchiha for crying, but this case was unusual, even for him. When the girl was done she collapsed, heaving air in and out heavily until she fully passed out. Rikuro gathered his cousin in his arms, cradling her protectively. The look in his eyes revealed too much; too many fears.

The silence reigned supreme as every one of his teammates racked their brains in an attempt to understand what had just happened. He faintly recalled something similar to this occurring before. After the kid had said something― What was it she had said again? Something about genin teams. But the choking fits and coughing up water were one in the same as far as shared traits went.

Finally Minato-sensei spoke. “Rikuro, would you mind explaining what…  _ that  _ was?”

Rikuro kept his focus on the ground, silent. For a few moments Kakashi wondered if he had even heard Minato-sensei speaking. But then, quietly, the stoic boy broke out of his trance, though his gaze remained riveted upon the grass.

“When Ame was six, she almost drowned in the river that’s near our estate. We’re not sure what happened, and neither is she. She doesn’t remember much from before she fell in or even really falling in. Yet she remembers these...these  _ things.  _ She used to scare Ayano-oba with the way she talked…,” Rikuro trailed off, lost in a conflicting past. 

Kakashi wanted to ask about the eyes, why it was they changed and if there was somehow a link between the both past and present events, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t get an answer to that question. He’d have to get the information on his own some other way.

“Some of these things that she remembers trigger a violent reaction like this, but not very often―at least since now, anyways. There’s just a lot that we don’t understand, and we’re not sure we ever will.” Rikuro stood up then, snatching up the staff as he hoisted his cousin into the air. Ame’s hair dangled towards the ground like a curtain, a very dark, waterlogged curtain. It struck Kakashi as odd that, even though she hadn’t actually been near any water, the child still somehow managed to look like she had just been dragged out of the drink. 

“We’ll be going home now. Thank you for allowing me and my cousin to train with you today. And please, don’t speak about this with anyone, or… ever again.” Rikuro gave a slight bow before striding off to exit the training field. He watched them leave through half-lidded eyes. The cats vanished in a puff of smoke and suddenly it was just him, his team, and the silence.

Kakashi let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. 

It seemed that the Hiroshi clan held many more secrets than he had originally thought, and he was  _ going  _ to dig them up, whether they liked it or not.


End file.
